New York State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon announced this week that she will convene a wage board to hold public hearings to hear testimony to consider the existing overtime work threshold for farm laborers. The board will also consider the extent to which the overtime work threshold may be lowered statewide. This hearing is the first of five scheduled to take place at locations throughout the state. Testimony will be heard from farm laborers, agricultural employers, academic experts, and elected officials, among others. Attendees are encouraged to preregister. To do so, go to: http://www.labor.ny.gov/farmwageboard. Those who cannot attend any of the wage board hearings in person can submit testimony to wage board [at] labor [dot] ny [dot] gov. The public hearing will be held at 11 a.m., Fri., Feb. 28, in the Clark Auditorium at the New York State Museum Cultural Education Center on Madison Ave. in Albany. Hearings are also scheduled to take place in Syracuse, Binghamton, Farmingville and Batavia. Read the full press release at the Department of Labor website.