For California wineries, harvest means long and irregular shifts, seasonal employees, and work that may span both vineyard and production operations. Those realities make crush a particularly important time to pay attention to California wage and hour laws.
The rules can also be more complicated than many winery employers realize. The applicable Wage Order—and therefore some of the governing requirements—can depend on what work is being performed and even whose grapes are being processed.
Start With the Correct Wage Order
California’s Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders govern many of the details of wages, hours and working conditions for nonexempt employees. In the wine industry, determining which Wage Order applies is not always as simple as identifying the employer as a “winery.”
There is no universal rule that every employee working for a wine business is governed by the same Wage Order in every circumstance. Classification depends on the particular facts and structure of the employer’s operations.
The practical point is simple: before calculating harvest overtime, make sure you know which rules apply. To assist, we have created harvest questionnaire.
Practical Harvest Wage-and-Hour Check
Wineries do not need to turn the middle of crush into a legal audit. But a short compliance review can identify problems before they repeat across weeks of extended schedules.
Consider asking:
Which Wage Order applies to our vineyard and winery operations?
Do we process only estate-grown fruit, or are we also handling purchased grapes or fruit belonging to others?
Are nonexempt employees consistently recording their actual start and stop times?
Are supervisors monitoring daily, weekly and seventh-day overtime?
Are any employees approaching or exceeding 72 hours in a workweek?
Are first and second meal periods being provided at the required times?
Are employees actually able to take their paid rest periods?
Are pre-shift meetings, cleanup, sanitation and other required activities occurring on the clock?
Do we pay harvest, retention, production or other bonuses that may affect the regular rate used to calculate overtime?
If we use farm labor contractors or other temporary labor providers, have we confirmed the arrangement and applicable licensing and wage-and-hour responsibilities?
If we use H-2A workers, are we monitoring the federal AEWR litigation and preserving the records needed to address any later wage adjustment?
A few minutes spent answering those questions can be significantly less expensive than trying to reconstruct several months of harvest schedules after a wage claim or lawsuit has been filed.
The Bottom Line
Harvest is supposed to be hectic. Wage and hour compliance does not have to be.
Because California wineries can operate across agricultural, production and seasonal-labor classifications, crush is a good time to confirm that scheduling, payroll and timekeeping practices match how the business actually operates.
Below are various examples of activities and the Wage Orders that likely apply.
The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”) identifies several potentially applicable Wage Orders for grape growing and wine production.
Vineyard activities such as growing, pruning, thinning and picking wine grapes generally fall within Wage Order 14, governing agricultural occupations. Agricultural work under Order 14 generally extends through harvest and field packing.
What happens after harvest can be different.
DLSE’s classification guidance places wine production involving a grower’s own grapes within Wage Order 13, governing industries preparing agricultural products for market on the farm. But the guidance identifies Wage Order 8, governing industries handling products after harvest, when the grapes being processed were not grown on the farm.
The distinction can matter more than it initially appears. DLSE’s guidance states that if a grower’s packing or processing operation handles the agricultural product of another employer – even a small amount – the operation may become a commercial operation subject to Wage Order 8 rather than Order 13.
For wineries that grow some of their own fruit but also purchase grapes, custom crush for others, or operate multiple distinct business units, Wage Order classification therefore deserves a closer look.
Long Harvest Days Mean Overtime—and Sometimes More Than That
The familiar California overtime rules apply to many nonexempt winery production employees.
Under Wage Orders 8 and 13, employees generally receive time-and-one-half for hours worked over eight in a workday and up to 12, as well as hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Work beyond 12 hours in a day generally requires double time. The Wage Orders also contain overtime requirements for work on a seventh consecutive day in the workweek.
Agricultural employees are no longer operating under the substantially higher overtime thresholds that existed years ago. California phased those thresholds down over time. As of January 1, 2025, even agricultural employers with 25 or fewer employees reached the eight-hour-per-day and 40-hour-per-week thresholds, with double time generally due after 12 hours in a workday.
That matters during harvest, when a 10-, 12- or even longer-hour day may be operationally understandable but still carries wage consequences.
There is another, lesser-known rule that can be particularly relevant during crush.
Under Wage Order 13, work in excess of 72 hours in a workweek must be voluntary. An employee may not be discharged or discriminated against for refusing to work beyond 72 hours in the week.
Wage Order 8 contains its own 72-hour provision. It generally requires a 24-hour off-duty period after an employee works 72 hours in a workweek, although the Order contains specific exceptions, including for certain key personnel in the grape and tree-fruit industries.
In other words, once harvest schedules become truly extended, the question may no longer be simply “Are we paying overtime?” Employers should also consider whether the applicable Wage Order places limits or additional conditions on the schedule itself.
Crush Does Not Create an Exception to Meal and Rest Period Requirements
Long harvest shifts also make meal and rest periods harder to administer. Covered nonexempt employees generally must receive a 30-minute meal period by the end of the fifth hour of work and a second meal period when working more than 10 hours, subject to limited waiver rules. Employees are also generally entitled to a paid 10-minute rest period for every four hours worked or major fraction thereof.
Crush creates obvious operational challenges: fruit arrives late, equipment cycles cannot always be interrupted, and production schedules change quickly. But those circumstances do not themselves suspend California’s break requirements.
Wineries should plan harvest staffing with meal and rest periods in mind rather than expecting supervisors to improvise once a busy shift is underway.
Make Sure the Timecard Captures the Entire Harvest Day
Harvest also creates opportunities for work to disappear from the timekeeping system: pre-shift production meetings, post-shift cleanup, tank checks, cellar-data entry and other short tasks performed outside scheduled hours. California requires employers to record and pay for all time they permit employees to work. Supervisors should therefore make clear that required pre- and post-shift activities remain on the clock.
Harvest bonuses can create a separate overtime issue. If a bonus for completing harvest, remaining through crush or meeting production goals is nondiscretionary, it generally must be included in the employee’s regular rate when calculating overtime. An employer can therefore pay every recorded overtime hour and still create an underpayment by overlooking a qualifying bonus.
Seasonal Labor and Contractors Do Not Make the Compliance Issues Disappear
Wineries often supplement their regular workforce during harvest. Some bring on seasonal cellar employees or “harvest interns.” Vineyard operations may rely on farm labor contractors. Others use staffing companies or other third parties to fill short-term needs.
The temporary nature of the work does not, by itself, remove California wage-and-hour requirements.
Wineries should be particularly careful with the word “intern.” A worker does not become exempt from wage and hour laws merely because the position is temporary, educational, sought after, or commonly referred to within the industry as a harvest internship. The actual relationship and work performed matter.
On the vineyard side, California requires persons engaged in the business of farm labor contracting to register with the Labor Commissioner. The Department of Industrial Relations maintains a database allowing growers to verify whether a farm labor contractor is properly licensed.
Using an outside labor provider should therefore be part of the winery’s compliance review rather than a reason to ignore it.
At minimum, businesses using temporary or contracted labor during harvest should understand who is employing the workers, who is recording their time, who is scheduling meal and rest periods, how overtime information is communicated, and whether any required contractor licenses are current.
Employers Using H-2A Workers Should Watch the Federal Wage Litigation
For vineyard operators using H-2A workers, another wage issue emerged during the 2026 harvest. The federal H-2A program generally requires payment of the highest applicable wage rate, including the applicable Adverse Effect Wage Rate (“AEWR”) or state minimum wage.
On August 25, 2026, a federal district court held that the Department of Labor’s revised AEWR methodology was unlawful. The court did not vacate the existing rule, however, so employers continue operating under the current rates for now. The court instead required notice that employers may ultimately have to make wage-adjustment payments if replacement AEWRs are higher. That potential obligation can also reach qualifying U.S. workers in corresponding employment.
The result is unusual: an employer may be paying the presently required wage and still face a retroactive adjustment later. Vineyard employers using H-2A labor should monitor the issue and preserve the payroll records needed to address any subsequent adjustment.
If your winery, vineyard or other wine-industry business has questions concerning harvest staffing, overtime, Wage Order classification, meal and rest periods, or other California employment law requirements, we can help review your current practices and identify practical changes where appropriate.
For any questions or assistance with California employment or wine-industry law, please contact us at Carle Mackie Power & Ross LLP. Arif Virji, Justin D. Hein, Samantha Pungprakearti, Sarah Hirschfield-Sussman