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Washington Supreme Court Alters State's Agricultural Exemption in the Minimum Wage Statute
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More Dispute Resolution | Employment & Labor | Agriculture Aricles → Latest Firm's PressSchwabe, Williamson & Wyatt On November 5, 2020, the Washington Supreme Court altered a 60-year provision of Washington’s Minimum Wage Statute when it issued its decision in Martinez-Cuevas v. DeRuyter Brothers Dairy. The court held that the agricultural overtime exemption at RCW 49.46.130(2)(g), which exempted agricultural employers from paying overtime at a rate of 1.5 times the regularly hourly rate, violated article I, section 12 of the Washington State Constitution as applied to dairy workers. While the decision does not invalidate the agricultural overtime exemption for all agricultural workers in Washington, Justice Gonzalez’s concurrence strongly signaled that the exemption’s future is far from certain and argued that any decision should be applied retroactively. In Martinez-Cuevas, the court cited long hours and dangerous work conditions to dairy workers to find that the Washington legislature lacked reasonable grounds for granting the overtime exemption to agricultural employers, as applied to dairy workers. Chief Justice Stephens, in her dissent, pointed out that the majority’s reasoning could be applied to most agricultural employers. The court did not state whether the decision would be applied retroactively because that issue was not before them. If the decision were to be applied retroactively, affected employers would have to pay affected employees half of the regular hourly rate for all overtime hours they worked for the last three years. While this ruling does not apply to all agricultural employers in Washington, those employers should start planning now for that possibility. Here are some suggestions:
This does not constitute legal advice and you should consult with an attorney as to how this ruling applies to your business.
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