“Employment”: Certain agricultural labor included.
1. “Employment” includes agricultural labor if:
(a) The services are performed in the employ of a person who:
(1) Paid cash wages of $20,000 or more during any calendar quarter of the current calendar year or preceding calendar year to persons employed in agricultural labor; or
(2) Employed 10 or more persons in agricultural labor some portion of the day for at least 20 days, each day being in a different calendar week, during the current calendar year or preceding calendar year whether or not the weeks were consecutive or the persons were employed at the same moment of time; and
(b) The services are performed:
(1) On a farm, in the employ of any person, in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training and management of livestock, bees, poultry and fur-bearing animals and wildlife.
(2) In the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm, in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement or maintenance of the farm and its tools and equipment, or in salvaging timber or clearing land of brush and other debris left by a hurricane, if the major part of the service is performed on a farm.
(3) In connection with the production or harvesting of any commodity defined as an agricultural commodity in section 15(g) of the Agricultural Marketing Act, 12 U.S.C. § 1141j, or in connection with the ginning of cotton, or in connection with the operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs or waterways, not owned or operated for profit, used exclusively for supplying and storing water for farming purposes.
(4) Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2, in the employ of the operator of a farm in handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing or delivering to storage or to market, or to a carrier for transportation to market, in its unmanufactured state, any agricultural or horticultural commodity, but only if the operator produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which such service is performed.
(5) Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2, in the employ of a group of operators of farms, or a cooperative organization of which such operators are members, in the performance of service described in subparagraph (4), but only if such operators produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which such service is performed.
(6) On a farm operated for profit although the service is not in the course of the employer’s trade or business.
2. The provisions of subparagraphs (4) and (5) of paragraph (b) of subsection 1 do not apply to service performed in connection with commercial canning or commercial freezing or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption.
3. As used in this section, the term “farm” includes stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, fur-bearing animal and truck farms, plantations, ranches, nurseries, ranges, greenhouses or other similar structures used primarily for raising agricultural or horticultural commodities, and orchards.
4. The provisions of this section do not apply to services performed before January 1, 1980, by an alien admitted to the United States to perform agricultural labor pursuant to sections 214(c) and 101(a)(15)(H) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1184(c) and 1101(a)(15)(H) respectively.
Last modified: February 25, 2006