Maine Senate approves farmworker minimum wage bill
A farmworker in Maine harvests zucchini. (Courtesy of John Williams/MOFGA)
The Maine Senate supported a measure to guarantee agricultural workers state minimum wage.
On Monday, the upper chamber voted 22-12 with a couple Republicans joining the majority party in the initial passage of LD 589. The legislation will next go to the House of Representatives for an initial vote and will need enactment votes from both chambers before it could be sent to Gov. Janet Mills for approval.
Granting minimum wage to farmworkers has been a years-long effort in Maine. Last year, Mills put forward a proposal that she ended up vetoing after the Labor Committee made changes to the bill. The bill this year mirrors the proposal Mills proposed last session.
'With this legislation, we send a clear message, Madam President, to those who harvest our food, nourish our families and sustain our communities,' said Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Cumberland). 'We say today: 'Your work matters, your dignity is recognized, your contributions are invaluable and the state of Maine will no longer tolerate a system built on exclusion and inequity.''
Talbot Ross, who sponsored the bill, also described the legislation as a way to 'turn the page on a painful history,' referring to the historic exclusion of agricultural workers from labor rights. Later in the discussion, Talbot Ross clarified that she was not calling any individuals 'racist' or 'second-class,' but referring to a pattern of discrimination throughout history that excluded Black and brown workers from certain labor protections.
The version of the bill supported by the Senate is pared back from the original proposal that also included overtime protections and a phased in overtime wage. Those were removed during the committee process.
Multiple Republicans who spoke in opposition to the bill emphasized the importance of piecework for some farms in the state, such as the blueberry industry, which pay people based on how much they pick.
Sen. Scott Cyrway (R-Kennebec) said that system encourages people to take pride in their work, while Sen. Joseph Martin (R-Oxford) said, 'piecework is not evil.' Both voted against the legislation.
However, Sen. Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot), who co-chairs the Labor Committee, clarified that the bill does not prohibit piecework.
The other issue raised on the floor stems from broader concerns about automatically updating the state's minimum wage with inflation, as is already the case in state law.
Though he said he was 'reluctantly' voting in favor of the bill, Sen. Dick Bradstreet (R-Kennebec) reminded his colleagues that he believes automatic increases to the state minimum wage are hurting the economy. However, he noted that LD 589 doesn't pertain to such cost-of-living increases.
Bradstreet said there were components in the original draft of the bill that he did not support, but he backed the amended version because members of the agriculture industry expressed their approval to the committee.
Tipping also noted during floor discussion that many agricultural employers in the state told the committee they already pay more than the state's minimum wage of $14.65 an hour.
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