The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

1. (a) Agricultural employees engage in back-breaking work every day.
2. (b) Few occupations in today’s America are as physically demanding and exhausting as agricultural work.
3. (c) In 1938, the United States Congress enacted the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 201 et seq.), which excluded agricultural workers from wage protections and overtime compensation requirements.
4. (d) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact the Phase-In Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act of 2016 to provide any person employed in an agricultural occupation in California, as defined in Order No. 14-2001 of the Industrial Welfare Commission (revised 07-2014) with an opportunity to earn overtime compensation under the same standards as millions of other Californians.