Oregon's Gov. Kate Brown has signed legislation that will phase in overtime pay for farmworkers beginning in 2023.

Brown signed House Bill 4002 without fanfare on April 15, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle. The bill ends an overtime exemption for agriculture and includes tax credits for employers to weather the added costs in the first six years of enactment.

Farm groups opposed the bill, which was passed in the final days of the 2022 legislative session.

"This is one of the most devastating bills for Oregon agriculture and another in a growing list of anti-family farm and ranch policies forced on us by lawmakers who at best do not understand and at worst do not care about Oregon agriculture," Oregon Farm Bureau president Angi Bailey wrote in a blog post.

"At the same time, we are grappling with inflation, increased fuel and fertilizer prices, another record drought, and the multitude of unfriendly policies coming out of Salem and Washington, D.C.," she wrote. "Candidly, I can’t think of a more discouraging time to be a farmer or rancher in Oregon."

Bailey adds the organization holds out hope that this fall's elections will bring a governor and Legislature that will "help us restore a farm friendly state."

California passed similar legislation in 2016, and Washington's state Supreme Court invalidated overtime exemptions for farmworkers in that state last year.