Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Farm workers 18 years of age and over must be paid the State minimum wage, even if they work at piece rates. Effective January 1, 2024, the minimum wage rate in New Jersey is $12.81 per hour.

Employees laboring on a farm are exempt from overtime.

No. The exemption to overtime applies only to work performed on the farm. Landscaping employees are not exempt.

Employers must keep records of daily and weekly hours worked and wages paid to employees. If a crew leader is involved in the payment of wages, he/she must keep records for all workers to whom wages were paid. These records must include the place of work, name and addresses of all workers, gross wages, deductions, the number of hours worked, the hourly wage rate, and, if on a piece rate, the number of units of work as well as the rate per unit of work.

Employees laboring on a farm on a daily basis must be paid daily on the premises where the work is being performed.

An employer may only employ a Crew Leader who possesses a current and valid certificate of registration issued by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Wage and Hour Compliance.

You can file a Wage Complaint form for monies due. Click here to obtain a copy of this form or contact the Division of Wage and Hour Compliance at (609) 292-2305. Once completed, the form should be returned to the address listed at the top of the form.

Mandatory break laws apply only to minors under the age of 18. Company policy dictates break and lunch periods for anyone over the age of 18. Minors under the age of 18 must be given a thirty (30) minute meal period after five (5) consecutive hours of work.

Minors may work a farm at 12 years of age and working papers are required for all minors under the age of 18.

Yes, a new Working Papers application must be submitted for every new job you wish to work.

Minors over the age of 12 may work 10 hours per day and 6 days per week during the hours they are not required to be in school. Minors over the age of 16 may work 10 hours per day and 6 days per week during the hours school is in session.

Learn more here.

Minors may perform work that is not dangerous.

Under the age of 16, they may use standard domestic type machines, office machines, standard types of poultry feeders, egg graders, egg washers, egg coolers, and milking machines.

Over the age of 16 they may also drive tractors and operate all machinery except power-driven woodworking machinery, grinding, abrasive, polishing or buffing machines, guillotine action cutting machines, operation or repair of elevators or other hoisting apparatus, corn pickers, power-driven hay balers or power field choppers, compactors, circular saws, band saws and guillotine shears.

Learn more here.

Division of Wage and Hour Compliance
Agricultural Compliance Section
P.O. Box 389
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0389
(609) 292-2305