MONTANA - Workers’ Rights

Definition of agricultural worker under state law:

• Under Montana’s minimum wage and overtime law (MONT. CODE ANN. § 39-3-402(4)&(5)):
• “ ‘Farm worker’ means a person employed to do a service performed on a farm or ranch.”
• “ ‘Farm or ranch’ means an endeavor primarily engaged in cultivating the soil or in connection with raising or harvesting an agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, and management of livestock, bees, and poultry and fur-bearing animals and wildlife.”

Wages and Overtime

Minimum Wage

• There is a state minimum wage law. (Mont. Code Ann. § 39-3-409)
• Montana’s hourly minimum wage is: • $9.95 effective Jan. 1, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2023.
• Agricultural workers are covered by the state minimum wage, but with some exceptions: (Mont. Code Ann. § 39-3-406)
• Learners under age of 18 employed as farm workers for up to 180 days from their initial date of employment (wage cannot be less than 50% of minimum);
• Retired or semiretired persons performing part-time incidental work as a condition of their residence on a farm or ranch

Overtime

• There is a state law regarding overtime pay. (Mont. Code Ann. § 39-3-405)
• Agricultural workers are excluded from the state overtime law. (Mont. Cod. Ann. § 39-3-406(2))

State Enforcement Agency

Montana Department of Labor & Industry, Compliance & Investigations Bureau

Website: www.mtwagehourbopa.com

Occupational Safety and Health

Workers’ Compensation

• Agricultural workers are covered by the state workers’ compensation law. (Mont. Code Ann. § 39-71-118.)

State Enforcement Agency:
Montana Department of Labor & Industry, Workers’ Compensation Section

Website: http://erd.dli.mt.gov/work-comp-claims
Relevant Forms: http://erd.dli.mt.gov/work-comp-claims/claims-assistance/claims-assistance-forms

Field Sanitation

• There is no state law regarding field sanitation.

Federal Enforcement Agency
US DOL, Montana OSHA Office

Website: https://www.osha.gov/contactus/bystate/MT/areaoffice

Pesticide Safety

• There is a state law regarding pesticide safety in agriculture. (MONT. CODE ANN. § 80-8-102, MONT. ADMIN. R. 4.10.1009.)
• Suspected pesticide poisoning is not a mandatory reportable illness for health care providers.

State Enforcement Agency:
Montana Department of Agriculture

Website: https://agr.mt.gov/Pesticides  

Right to Join Unions and Collective Bargaining in Agriculture

• There is no provision (or judicial interpretation of a provision) in the state constitution that grants farmworkers the right to join and organize labor unions free from retaliation or to engage in collective bargaining with their employers.
• There is no state statute that grants agricultural workers the right to join and organize labor unions free from retaliation or to engage in collective bargaining with agricultural employers.

State Legal Services Organizations

Montana Legal Services Association
http://www.mtlsa.org