Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman ANNETTE QUIJANO
District 20 (Union)
Assemblyman JULIO MARENCO
District 33 (Hudson)
SYNOPSIS
The Farm Labor Equality Act.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning conditions of employment for farmworkers, revising various portions of the statutory law, and supplementing Title 34 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 15 of P.L.1940, c. 153 (C.34:2-21.15) is amended to read as follows:
15. Except as hereinafter provided as to newspaper carriers, no minor under 14 years of age may engage in any street trade, which term, for the purpose of this section shall include the selling, offering for sale, soliciting for, collecting for, displaying, or distributing any articles, goods, merchandise, commercial service, posters, circulars, newspapers or magazines or in blacking shoes on any street or other public place or from house to house. [No] Until December 31, 2024, no minor under 12 years of age may be employed in agricultural pursuits. After December 31, 2024, no minor under 14 years of age may be employed in agricultural pursuits, and minors under 18 years of age shall be subject to the provisions of section 3 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.3).
Whenever a minor has graduated from vocational school, approved by the Commissioner of Education and is 17 years of age, the minor's diploma or certified copy thereof and an employment certificate provided by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development shall be deemed authorization to engage in those pursuits in which the minor majored in said vocational school during those hours permitted for persons 18 years of age and over.
Except as hereinafter provided as to newspaper carriers, whenever a minor under 16 years of age desires to work during such times as the schools of the district in which the minor resides are not in session in any street trade or in agricultural pursuits, the minor may register with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development an application for authorization to work. Such registration shall show the exact character of the work the minor is to do, and the hours and wages and special conditions under which said work is to be performed.
If upon investigation it is found that the facts set forth in the application are true and that the work will not interfere with the minor's health or standing in school, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development shall issue authorization allowing the minor to work at such times as the public schools in the district are not in session, but such work except in agricultural pursuits, and as newspaper carriers, to be otherwise subject to the maximum hours of labor provisions set for minors under 16 years of age in section 3 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.3); provided, that nothing in P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.1 et seq.) shall prevent newspaper carriers as defined in P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.1 et seq.), between 11 and 14 years of age, from delivering, soliciting, selling and collecting for newspapers on routes in residential neighborhoods between the hours of 6:00 o'clock in the morning and 7:00 o'clock in the evening of any day; and newspaper carriers 14 years of age and older from delivering, soliciting, selling and collecting for newspapers on routes in residential neighborhoods between the hours of 5:30 o'clock in the morning and 8:00 o'clock in the evening of any day; and provided further that no newspaper carrier under the age of 18 years shall be permitted to engage in such occupation beyond the period of time wherein the combined hours devoted to said occupation as a newspaper carrier and the hours in school shall exceed a total of 40 hours per week and not more than 8 hours in any 1 day; and provided, further, that, prior to January 1, 2025, minors engaged in agricultural pursuits may be employed no more than 10 hours per day, and, after December 31, 2024, minors engaged in agricultural pursuits shall be subject to the limits in the number of hours they may be employed stipulated in the provisions of section 3 of P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.3).
Such authorization shall show the name, address, and date of birth of the minor for whom it is issued, the kind of proof of age submitted, the nature of the occupation in which the minor is to engage, and such other information as the Department of Labor and Workforce Development may require.
Any authorization for work in agriculture shall be issued and active until the minor is 18 years of age.
Upon application by the minor who desires to work as a newspaper carrier as defined in P.L.1940, c.153 (C.34:2-21.1 et seq.), who is between the ages of 11 and 18 years of age, to the publisher of any newspaper in this State and upon receiving authorization from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, such publisher may employ such newspaper carrier to deliver, solicit, sell and collect for newspapers outside of the newspaper carrier's school hours on residential routes, and on Sundays and during school vacations.
The authorization shall show the name, address and date of birth of the newspaper carrier for whom it is issued, and such other information as the Department of Labor and Workforce Development may require.
The authorization shall remain in full force and effect unless and until the minor is 18 years of age.
The publisher shall keep a
record of the name, address and birth date of each newspaper carrier who is a
minor. Such records shall be kept on file by said publisher for a period of
two years after the
newspaper carrier has ceased delivering newspapers published by said publisher.
(cf: P.L.2022, c.63, s.5)
2. Section 5 of P.L.1966, c.113 (C.34:11-56a4) is amended to read as follows:
5. a. Except as provided in subsections c., d., e. g., and i. of this section, each employer shall pay to each of his employees wages at a rate of not less than $8.85 per hour as of January 1, 2019 and, on January 1 of 2020 and January 1 of each subsequent year, the minimum wage shall be increased by any increase in the consumer price index for all urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W) as calculated by the federal government for the 12 months prior to the September 30 preceding that January 1, except that any of the following rates shall apply if it exceeds the rate determined in accordance with the applicable increase in the CPI-W for the indicated year: on July 1, 2019, the minimum wage shall be $10.00 per hour; on January 1, 2020, the minimum wage shall be $11.00 per hour; and on January 1 of each year from 2021 to 2024, inclusive, the minimum wage shall be increased from the rate of the preceding year by $1.00 per hour. If the federal minimum hourly wage rate set by section 6 of the federal "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938" (29 U.S.C. s.206), or a successor federal law, is raised to a level higher than the State minimum wage rate set by this subsection, then the State minimum wage rate shall be increased to the level of the federal minimum wage rate an