President's Message

Happy New Year to all! Hopefully everyone will have a great and prosperous 2016 year. Along with the New Year comes all the new laws that legislators have passed, so I would recommend that everyone take a look at them carefully. One of the major ones to look at is the change in minimum wage, from $9.00/hr. to $10/hr. Also the new new Piece-Rate Pay law in one where you must compensate your piece rate employees for rest periods and breaks. As for the new Gender Pay Equity law, where women must be paid the same as men, I don’t see this as much of an issue in agriculture as everyone is paid the same, but it may have its troubled areas. Last July a new law implementing Paid Sick Leave (PSL) went into effect, but it simply states every employee who works at least 30 days in a year is entitled to accrue PSL at a rate of at least one hour of PSL per 30 hours worked, up to 24 hours per year. There are others to look at, but these seem very crucial to agriculture.
With the start of 2016 I would like all members to get more involved. This can be done in many ways, including by simply telling people, (friends that are non-Ag) stories of farmers and what they do, or by helping MCFB get more new members so our membership is a strong united voice. I welcome any suggestions you may have! Feel free to contact me @ 559-307-9720, and again let’s have a GREAT 2016!