Last week, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed SB1121, a bill that would have given farm 
workers overtime when they work over eight hours in one day or over forty hours in one week. Currently, California farm workers earn overtime for all hours over 10 hours in one day and 60 hours in one week. Federal law, by contrast, does not require employers to pay farm workers any overtime at all.
In order to remain competitive against other states that do not have such wage requirements, businesses will simply avoid paying overtime.
The bill would have also applied California’s meal and rest break requirements to farm workers. The Governor also cited this as a reason why he vetoed the law:
Finally, it should be noted that Senate Bill 1121 would not just change the rules governing overtime pay for agricultural workers, but would also apply California’s confusing and burdensome rest and meal requirements. Unfortunately, while there have been several attempts to clean up this section of law, efforts at comprehensive reform continue to fail. There is no reason to exacerbate this continuing problem by adding agricultural workers to it. For these reasons, I am unable to sign this bill.
The Governor’s statement is referring to the issues that the California Supreme Court is currently reviewing in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court. One of the many issues being reviewed in Brinker, is whether California employers need to only provide, not ensure, employees with their 30-minute meal break under California law. Click here for more analysis on the Brinker case.