Two bills setting a state minimum wage for Maine farmworkers and giving them the right to act together to try to change their working conditions were signed into law Tuesday.
Agricultural workers have long been exempted from the labor protections extended to most employees, and similar bills have been proposed over the past two years, with supporters arguing that they would correct historical injustices.
Maine joins more than 20 other states with minimum wage laws for farm workers, according to the National Agricultural Law Center, although some of those have exemptions. Previously, farm employees here only had to be paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 2009. They will now make $14.65 per hour starting on Jan. 1 with annual cost of living adjustments.
The second bill gives them protections for “concerted activity,” or talking to their coworkers or outside groups in order to ask for changes to their working conditions. That doesn’t extend to unionizing.
“We are not just catching up — we are affirming that no one should be paid poverty wages to do essential work,” said Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Cumberland, who sponsored the minimum wage bill. “Our laws now better reflect our values.”
The new laws stop short of some additional changes that have been discussed, such as making farmworkers eligible for overtime pay or giving them the right to unionize.
In written testimony on the bills, some farmers said they already offer workers above minimum wage, but they argued that requiring overtime wouldn’t make sense with the unpredictable and time-sensitive nature of farming.
