The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) has published the minimum monthly compensation required for sheep- and goatherders employed in California for 2025. Found at What amount are Sheepherders owed as a result of AB 1066’s Overtime Phase-In?, the update was necessitated by the final phase-in stage of California agricultural overtime legislation passed in 2016 (AB 1066) and the upcoming 2025 minimum wage inflation adjustment required by California law.

AB 1066 phased-in more stringent agricultural overtime requirements in stages, featuring a longer phase-in schedule for smaller employers. AB 1066 calls for employers of 25 or fewer employees to begin paying overtime after eight hours in a workday or forty hours in a workweek on January 1, 2025.

SB 3, (Leno, 2016) increased California’s minimum wage over several years, with a slower implementation schedule for small employers. SB 3 raised the state’s minimum wage from $10.50 per hour for large employers (26 or more employees) on January 1, 2017 to $15 per hour for employers of 25 or fewer employees on January 1, 2023, with the minimum wage adjusted to inflation annually thereafter. As of January 1, 2025, the state’s minimum wage will be $16.50 per hour regardless of workforce size.

The combination of implementation of AB 1066 and SB 3 means that employers of sheep- and goatherders employed on a 24-hour on-standby status must receive minimum monthly compensation of $2933.51 plus an additional $1886.91 for overtime, for a monthly total of $4820.42, nearly 2 1/2 times the minimum required compensation of $1986 per month under federal rules governing the federal H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa program applicable in other states. Nearly all sheep- and goat herders working in the United States are employed under the H-2A program, but H-2A employers must follow state rules of they provide greater benefits to employees.