NJ Farmworkers Are Being Cheated By Unfair Pay Laws, Suit Claims

NEW JERSEY — A farm job is hard enough already. But when you’re treated as a “second-class citizen” and denied the same pay protections that other New Jersey residents are getting, it makes a tough job much more difficult, advocates say.

On Wednesday, the ACLU of New Jersey, the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice filed a complaint on behalf of El Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA), a grassroots organization that aims to improve the working and living conditions of farmworkers. The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief and declaratory judgment for violations of equal protection under the New Jersey Constitution.

The problem? Farmworkers in New Jersey aren’t getting the same overtime and minimum wage protections as other workers in the Garden State, the suit claims.

According to the ACLU-NJ:

“Since 1966, New Jersey has denied farmworkers the right to overtime pay that it mandates for other similarly situated workers. Today, the state’s Wage and Hour Law (WHL) still denies farmworkers the same wage and overtime protections guaranteed to other New Jerseyans. Despite amending the law in 2019 to increase the minimum wage to $15 beginning in 2024, legislators once again disqualified farmworkers from equivalent protection, setting a lower minimum wage and instituting only incremental wage increases until 2030.”

Now, it’s time to put farmworkers on the same playing field as other employees in New Jersey and get rid of these “exclusions,” advocates say.

“Not only do these exclusions harm a particularly vulnerable group, they also mirror federal policies that were intentionally designed to perpetuate racial discrimination,” the ACLU-NJ wrote. “New Jersey lawmakers modeled the WHL’s farmworker exclusions on equivalent exclusions in the Fair Labor Standards Act and other New Deal labor laws – both designed to specifically exclude Black and minority workers.”

The irony? In prior cases, the New Jersey Supreme Court has recognized that farmworkers – the vast majority of whom are Latino or Latina and members of the immigrant community – warrant special judicial consideration because they are among the state’s most marginalized residents.

“Farmworkers in New Jersey receive low wages, have little union representation, and many cannot vote in elections,” the ACLU-NJ said. “This reality makes farmworkers especially vulnerable to unfair workplace treatment, which is demonstrated by their exclusion from the wage and hour protections that the state guarantees to others.”

Jessica Culley, a general coordinator with CATA, said many of New Jersey’s farmworkers are feeling like they’re “invisible” after facing years of low wages and long hours.

“Farmworkers have been denied fundamental rights for many years, and they deserve to be free from the discrimination and racism that has denied them fair wages,” agreed Manuel Guzman, an organizer at CATA.

“New Jersey’s arbitrary exclusions of farmworkers from wage protections are based in racism and effectively relegate farmworkers to a second-class legal status, depriving CATA members of their rights to equality, dignity, safety, and health,” ACLU-NJ legal director Jeanne LoCicero said.

“States across the country have recognized that overtime and minimum wage exclusions undermine equality – it’s past time for New Jersey to do the same,” LoCicero urged.

Hopefully, the courts will agree with advocates when push comes to shove, said Jenny-Brooke Condon, director of Seton Hall Law School’s Equal Justice Clinic.

“New Jersey courts have a long tradition of fulfilling the state constitution’s promise as a source of independent and broader protection than the federal constitution,” Condon said. “That tradition matters in this case, where vulnerable farmworkers – carved out of basic labor protections provided to other similarly situated workers – seek fulfillment of the state constitution’s basic guarantee of equal treatment.”

• See Related: NJ Raises Minimum Wage To $15 – But It Still Isn’t Enough To Live On
• See Related: Thousands More New Jersey Workers Now Qualify For Overtime Pay
• See Related: NJ Workers May Get Relief Under Proposed Federal ‘Extreme Heat’ Rule

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