Over the last five years, numerous Minnesota farms have been investigated for wage theft, much of it involving failure to pay overtime. But advocates believe the problem is much worse than the records indicate.
Of the eight case files Workday Minnesota reviewed through a records request to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, two involved rural dairy farms that did not pay employees overtime (1.5 times their base pay) after 48 hours per week.
In 2011, Twin Spruce Farms in Richmond was found to have shorted 36 employees a total of $55,951.61 in overtime wages. In 2015, the department discovered that Clark Farms, LLC, in Rollingstone failed to pay 10 milk harvesters a total of $19,104.58 in overtime wages.
According to a department fact sheet, while agriculture workers are exempt from federal overtime law in some instances, Minnesota overtime law still applies as long as workers are not on a salary. As of Aug. 1 of this year, agriculture workers on salary must be paid at least $661.50 per week if they are working for a large employer and $532.88 per week if they are working for a small employer.
Ernesto Velez, executive director at Centro Campesino, said the Owatonna-based worker center has seen people who are working 60, 70 or even 80 hours a week, but only receiving $23,000 to $27,000 in salary.
“The worst case that I saw was a guy who was working at a pig farm and he was working an average of 65-68 hours a week. And his salary came to about $24,000 a year,” Velez recalled.
Velez said wage theft in agriculture is not rare, estimating that as many as 70 percent of Minnesota farm workers have experienced it. Many work long hours on farms that have livestock, including cows, hogs, chickens and turkeys. Many are undocumented immigrants who are afraid to speak up.
He described the numerous dangers in many farm jobs, such as lifting heavy hogs, getting kicked by cows, getting stuck in silos on grain farms, completing repetitive motions throughout the day and making mistakes based on a lack of technical training.
“There was a scenario where somebody was given the task to do hormone shots on small hogs and, with no experience, ended up shooting himself and ended up being hospitalized and being treated for that hormone entering the body,” he said.
While failure to pay overtime is a common problem, other forms of wage theft in agriculture include employers misclassifying workers as independent contractors, and, in some cases, not paying workers at all.
Velez explained that when farm employers do not pay their workers, sometimes the farm simply does not have any money. In these situations, the affected workers may be stuck living on a rural farm with limited access to transportation while their employer withholds their wages.
Organizers at the Greater Minnesota Worker Center in St. Cloud have seen similar cases. Staff organizer Alisha Williams-Washington recalled one case in which a dairy farm worker submitted his time card to his employer after two weeks of work, was denied his wages and fired.
The worker and his family also lived at the farm and were “forced off of the property,” she said. Williams-Washington added that the farm owner had allegedly filed for bankruptcy.
Ali and Williams-Washington focus on educating workers, reaching out to community groups for support in confronting employers, lobbying for wage theft protections and connecting workers with private attorneys.
When agricultural workers who have experienced a labor violation seek help from Centro Campesino, the center will typically take them through a three-step process: helping the worker understand his or her rights, connecting him or her with a labor lawyer and documenting their complaint, possibly by contacting a state or federal agency.
If it’s discovered that labor violations are affecting a group of workers, Centro Campesino may move on to community organizing and “explore the possibility of either going after the company or a section of the industry,” Velez said.
Wage theft is difficult for workers to challenge on their own, he said. “The only way of stopping it is somebody needs to catch it. And then, whoever catches it needs to go through the process of stopping it.”
Workday is interested in your comments about our wage theft series. Contact us here or through our Facebook page or Twitter account.
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Over the last five years, numerous Minnesota farms have been investigated for wage theft, much of it involving failure to pay overtime. But advocates believe the problem is much worse than the records indicate.
Of the eight case files Workday Minnesota reviewed through a records request to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, two involved rural dairy farms that did not pay employees overtime (1.5 times their base pay) after 48 hours per week.
In 2011, Twin Spruce Farms in Richmond was found to have shorted 36 employees a total of $55,951.61 in overtime wages. In 2015, the department discovered that Clark Farms, LLC, in Rollingstone failed to pay 10 milk harvesters a total of $19,104.58 in overtime wages.
According to a department fact sheet, while agriculture workers are exempt from federal overtime law in some instances, Minnesota overtime law still applies as long as workers are not on a salary. As of Aug. 1 of this year, agriculture workers on salary must be paid at least $661.50 per week if they are working for a large employer and $532.88 per week if they are working for a small employer.
Ernesto Velez, executive director at Centro Campesino, said the Owatonna-based worker center has seen people who are working 60, 70 or even 80 hours a week, but only receiving $23,000 to $27,000 in salary.
“The worst case that I saw was a guy who was working at a pig farm and he was working an average of 65-68 hours a week. And his salary came to about $24,000 a year,” Velez recalled.
Velez said wage theft in agriculture is not rare, estimating that as many as 70 percent of Minnesota farm workers have experienced it. Many work long hours on farms that have livestock, including cows, hogs, chickens and turkeys. Many are undocumented immigrants who are afraid to speak up.
He described the numerous dangers in many farm jobs, such as lifting heavy hogs, getting kicked by cows, getting stuck in silos on grain farms, completing repetitive motions throughout the day and making mistakes based on a lack of technical training.
“There was a scenario where somebody was given the task to do hormone shots on small hogs and, with no experience, ended up shooting himself and ended up being hospitalized and being treated for that hormone entering the body,” he said.
While failure to pay overtime is a common problem, other forms of wage theft in agriculture include employers misclassifying workers as independent contractors, and, in some cases, not paying workers at all.
Velez explained that when farm employers do not pay their workers, sometimes the farm simply does not have any money. In these situations, the affected workers may be stuck living on a rural farm with limited access to transportation while their employer withholds their wages.
Organizers at the Greater Minnesota Worker Center in St. Cloud have seen similar cases. Staff organizer Alisha Williams-Washington recalled one case in which a dairy farm worker submitted his time card to his employer after two weeks of work, was denied his wages and fired.
The worker and his family also lived at the farm and were “forced off of the property,” she said. Williams-Washington added that the farm owner had allegedly filed for bankruptcy.
Ali and Williams-Washington focus on educating workers, reaching out to community groups for support in confronting employers, lobbying for wage theft protections and connecting workers with private attorneys.
When agricultural workers who have experienced a labor violation seek help from Centro Campesino, the center will typically take them through a three-step process: helping the worker understand his or her rights, connecting him or her with a labor lawyer and documenting their complaint, possibly by contacting a state or federal agency.
If it’s discovered that labor violations are affecting a group of workers, Centro Campesino may move on to community organizing and “explore the possibility of either going after the company or a section of the industry,” Velez said.
Wage theft is difficult for workers to challenge on their own, he said. “The only way of stopping it is somebody needs to catch it. And then, whoever catches it needs to go through the process of stopping it.”
Workday is interested in your comments about our wage theft series. Contact us here or through our Facebook page or Twitter account.