The bill that would raise the overtime threshold for overtime pay for certain agricultural workers won the narrowest of votes Thursday in the Colorado House.

Senate Bill 121 won a 33-32 vote, a dramatic difference from votes cast Wednesday on nearly three dozen amendments offered by progressive Democrats. Most of those recorded votes, taken late in the day following a six-hour debate on the bill, showed support from as many as 19 Democrats.

Not one of those 32 amendments passed.

Still, the bill survived and now heads back to the state Senate, which must review an amendment added Wednesday by co-sponsors Rep. Matthew Martinez, D-Monte Vista, and House Assistant Minority Leader Ty Winter, R-Trinidad.

That amendment puts more teeth into penalties for employers who willfully don’t pay overtime for their agriculture workers or who classify hourly workers as salaried to avoid paying overtime.

The bill, as approved by the House, states that any agricultural employer who “willfully” and without legal justification fails to pay overtime three times in a five-year period can be assessed a fine 10% higher than what’s already in the law, which is a $50 per day fine.

An agriculture employer who misclassifies workers as salaried when they’re hourly face a fine of $20,000 for three or more violations over a five-year period, and a $40,000 fine if the problem is not remedied within 60 days of a determination by the stae labor department.

Martinez told Colorado Politics the amendment is designed to bring more balance into the bill and to go after repeat offenders who don’t pay overtime when they should.

As introduced, SB 121 set a threshold of 60 hours before most agricultural workers can start earning overtime pay. Currently, rules set up by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment set the overtime minimum at 48 hours, with a minimum of 56 hours for 22 weeks of the year during peak planting and harvesting season.

The bill was amended by the Senate to drop the threshold to 56 hours. It excludes salaried employees and those who are on the range 24/7, such as shepherds and those who work with cattle.

Proponents noted studies from California and Oregon that show agricultural workers are losing money because of the overtime rules, that employers cut off the work at the overtime minimum, and that forces those workers to take on second jobs.

Opponents said the workers face harsh labor conditions, an issue that a 2021 law addressed and which also allowed the labor department to come up with the rules on overtime.

They additionally claimed most of the farms that will benefit from the bill are large, corporate farms, which are about 3% of operations in Colorado, and that concerns for small farms are misguided, since most don’t have outside labor.

The debates Wednesday and Thursday took on racial overtones, with complaints that progressive Democrats targeted Martinez for not supporting migrant workers.

It would be nice “if race wasn’t a part of this, but it appears that it really is. It is why agricultural workers are being so penalized in their work,” said Rep. Tammy Story, D-Evergreen, who introduced an amendment to add in a legislative declaration noting the 2021 bill that set up the overtime rules and which addressed “the inequity and racist origins of the exclusion of agricultural employees from overtime.”

Martinez responded with a history lesson of his own.

“Who were the first farmers and ranchers in the state of Colorado? Latino farmers and ranchers that were here before Colorado was Colorado in my area, in my neck of the woods,” he said.

“Not every farmer or rancher looks the same across the state,” he said, adding that he represents Latino farmers and ranchers who have worked the land years before Colorado was a state.

“We have to take skin color out of this,” said Rep. Scott Bottoms, R-Colorado Springs, who recounted his own experience in eastern Colorado with migrant farm workers, who, he noted, were from South Africa and who were White.

“This is not about ethnicity,” he said. “This is about people wanting to work, people wanting to get the job done and do the work.”

Story pointed out that last month, the legislature approved changing the name of Cesar Chavez Day to Farm Workers Day to honor the farm workers.

The House recognized farm workers as the backbone of American agriculture and the core of the Colorado economy, Story said, and the vote was unanimous.

Lawmakers can’t honor farmworkers one day and then vote to exploit them 19 days later, she said, calling it blatant hypocrisy and “selective inequality.”

“The choice today for me is simple. Either we stand with farm workers or we stand against them, and I know where I stand,” Story said.

Winter responded that the bill is about doing what’s right for the people of Colorado in more ways than one.

“I will not have my character impugned or allow my co-prime to have his character impugned. The amount of work that he has done and the amount of work that we’ve put into this to make this a race issue — it’s disgusting,” Winter said.

The Senate is expected to concur with the House amendment, and if that happens, the bill is off to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk. Supporters have told Colorado Politics they believe the governor will sign it.