If you are new to the legal aspects being a farm employer, you will want to gain an understanding the following topics at a minimum: workers compensation, minimum wage, paperwork needed at the start of employment, employee versus independent contractor, laws regarding volunteers and interns, and overtime rules for agricultural labor and non-agricultural labor. You can find information for your state by calling your state’s Department of Labor.
You can also go to the following web sites:
- https://farmcommons.org.
- https://extension.unh.edu/resource/legal-guide-new-hampshire-agricultural-producers
- https://extension.umd.edu/aglaw
- https://nofavt.org/faq-labor-regulations-farmers
- http://www.uvm.edu/newfarmer/?Page=business/labor.html&SM=business/sub-menu.html#uslabor
If you have some familiarity with these topics but could use a refresher to make sure your practices match current regulations, you may want to focus on the following topics:
- Employee classification – for profit farms have main two categories, an employee or an independent contractor. Volunteers are not a legal classification on “for-profit” farms. Interns will need to meet legal standards.
- Necessary records kept for an appropriate amount of time. Call your Department of Labor to get a list of records required for your labor force, or search some of the resources listed below.
- Correctly differentiating between agricultural and non-agricultural labor. This has implications for both minimum wage and overtime rules.
- Rules dictating the frequency by which you: have to pay employees, provide paid breaks, provide uniforms and tools, and other such regulations.