The New York Department of Labor has created the New York Farm Workers Wage Order to show the new minimum wage rates for farm workers. Under Part 190 of Title 12 of the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules, and Regulations of the state of New York, farm employee includes any individual engaged or permitted by an employer to work on a farm, except:
- the parent, spouse, child or other member of the employer’s immediate family;
- a minor under 17 years of age employed as a hand harvest worker on the same farm as the minor’s parent or guardian and who is paid on a piece-rate basis at the same piece rate as employees 17 years of age and over;
- an individual employed by the Federal, State or municipal government or a political subdivision thereof; and
- for the part of the working time covered by the provisions of another minimum wage order promulgated by the commissioner.
Employed on a farm means the services performed by an employee on a farm in the employ of the owner, lessee or operator of a farm in connection with:
- cultivating the soil;
- raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising or hatching of poultry, the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, management of livestock, bees, fur-bearing animals and wildlife;
- the production or harvesting of maple syrup or maple sugar;
- the operation, management, conservation, improvement or maintenance of a farm and its tools and equipment;
- the operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs or waterways used exclusively for removing, supplying and storing water for farming purposes;
- the handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing or delivering to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, of any agricultural or horticultural commodity raised on the employer’s farm.
Posting Requirement
Farm employers are required to post the New York Farm Workers Wage Order in a place on the farm where employees can easily see it (12 NYCRR §190-6.1).