A New Jersey Superior Court judge has rejected the state’s motion to dismiss a complaint challenging wage and overtime exclusions for farmworkers. The ruling, issued by Presiding Judge Patrick J. Bartels of the Chancery Division in Mercer County, allows claims that these exclusions violate the state constitution’s prohibition on special laws to proceed.
The complaint was filed by the ACLU of New Jersey, along with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, the ACLU Racial Justice Program, and Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Social Justice. They represent El Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA), an organization advocating for farmworker rights. The suit seeks injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment under the New Jersey Constitution’s equal protection clause.
“This decision brings us closer to achieving economic justice for farmworkers, who have been denied equal wage and overtime protections for decades despite the critical role they play in making New Jersey the Garden State,” said ACLU-NJ Legal Director Jeanne LoCicero. “Farmworkers deserve a shot at making their case, and now they will get it.”
New Jersey’s Wage and Hour Law does not grant farmworkers the same minimum wage and overtime protections as other workers in the state. Even after lawmakers raised the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour beginning in 2024, farmworkers remain subject to lower wages with incremental increases until parity is reached in 2030.
“This ruling is just the beginning of vindicating the rights of farmworkers in New Jersey who have faced decades of wage discrimination,” said Jessica Culley, General Coordinator at CATA. “Especially in this moment, when immigrant communities are being brutalized across the country and our local communities experience raids on a nearly weekly basis, New Jersey must begin treating farmworkers with the same dignity and respect it affords similar workers.”
Previous decisions by the New Jersey Supreme Court have acknowledged that most farmworkers are members of marginalized groups with limited political power or union representation. Many are immigrants or people of color who cannot vote and are more vulnerable to unfair workplace practices.
“We are glad that the court has taken the first step toward ensuring that New Jersey’s hardworking farmworkers get the same basic wage protections as other New Jerseyans,” said Noelle Smith, Skadden Fellow at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “It’s clear that employers should be paying farmworkers a fair wage for their critical work.”
“This is a momentous step forward in protecting the rights of some of NJ’s most vulnerable workers,” said Jenny-Brooke Condon, Professor of Law and Director of Seton Hall Law School’s Equal Justice Clinic. “It reaffirms that our State Constitution is a source of broad protection independent of the Federal Constitution.”
The exclusion from wage and overtime protections mirrors federal policies established during the New Deal era that excluded Black and minority workers from labor law benefits. Advocates argue these policies continue to affect marginalized groups today.
“This decision shows that New Jersey’s exclusion of farmworkers from basic wage and overtime protections is unjustified. For decades, farmworkers have been denied the dignity, equality, and protections guaranteed to other workers in this state,” said Alejandro Agustín Ortiz, Senior Counsel at the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program. “This ruling is a victory for racial and economic justice, and for the thousands of workers whose labor sustains our communities.”
The ACLU of New Jersey operates as a civil rights organization based in Newark since its founding in 1960. It advocates for equity by centering marginalized voices through legal action and policy reform efforts across areas such as voting rights and criminal justice reform throughout New Jersey.
