AUGUSTA — The Legislature’s Labor Committee is considering bills to help farmworkers, including a new requirement that they be paid minimum wage and another that phases in overtime pay.
While supporters say most Maine farmers already pay their workers more than the current state minimum wage of $14.65, they are concerned that workers lack vital protections enjoyed by others.
“How can we claim to value the labor of farmworkers so essential to the food on our tables while continuing to exclude them from the most basic labor protections that every other worker is afforded?” said Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland).
Talbot Ross is sponsoring one bill to make it clear that farmworkers are employees and another to allow them to engage in concerted activity, which are discussions about wages and working conditions.
Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) is sponsoring a bill to require farmworkers to be paid the minimum wage and he supports giving farmworkers a private right to action. That gives workers the power to use an attorney to fight on their behalf, rather than relying on the state Department of Labor to investigate complaints.
“None of us should rely on the government ultimately to defend our rights,” Bennett said.
Lawmakers passed similar bills in the past couple of years, but two have been vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills. Mills does not believe farmworkers need the private right to action, she wrote in one of her veto letters.
“I did not and still do not believe it is appropriate to authorize a private right of action carte blanche, particularly in the case of farms, because I am deeply concerned that doing so would result in litigation that would simply sap farmers of financial resources and cause them to fail,” she wrote in the April 2024 letter.
Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman told committee members Wednesday that the administration does support requiring the minimum wage for farmworkers. She said the administration considers farmworkers to be employees and that she is not sure whether farmworkers already have a private right to sue.
Several farmers testified in opposition, particularly with regard to the requirement to pay overtime.
Penny Jordan is one of the owners of Jordan’s Farm in Cape Elizabeth, a vegetable farm. She said she supports the state minimum wage for farmworkers and at her farm, they pay between $19 and $25 an hour.
But requiring overtime is a step too far, she said.
“Now, when you start talking time and a half at 25 bucks an hour, I gotta tell ya, that equates to a lot of money,” she said. “You tell me how you recoup those dollars selling lettuce and spinach and corn.”
Tessa Burpee of Brewer, also a vegetable farmer, said an overtime requirement would mean hiring more workers and cutting hours for current workers to avoid costly overtime.
“Or we could consider paying just the minimum wage instead of above it,” she said in written remarks. “None of these options actually benefit the farmworker. And they certainly would not make us a more desirable business to work for.”
The committee will take votes on the bills in the coming weeks.
