780.304—“Employed by an employer.”
(a)
The employer may be an individual, a partnership, or a corporation. It is not necessary that the employer be a farmer as defined in § 780.131. It is sufficient that he “uses” agricultural labor.
(b)
In applying this exemption, one of the main criteria is the number of man-days of agricultural labor used by the employer. Section 13(a)(6)(A) provides that the exemption shall not apply to an employee employed in agriculture “if such employee is employed by an employer who did not * * * use more than 500 man-days of agricultural labor * * *.” From this language of the statute, the man-days of all agricultural workers, unless specifically excluded, of an employer whether he be the owner of a single farm, the owner of an enterprise consisting of several farms, a tenant farmer, an independent contractor, etc., are to be counted for purposes of section 13(a)(6)(A) whether they are employed at one place or several widely scattered places. For example if an employer owns and operates two farms, it is the total number of man-days used on both farms and not that used on each individual farm that determines whether he meets the 500 man-day test. Likewise independent contractor who harvests crops on different farms during the harvesting season must total all the man-days of agricultural labor used on all such farms except those excludable under section 3(e) in determining whether he meets the 500 man-day test.