AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would put farmworkers under Maine’s minimum wage laws, prompting stern rebukes from progressives.
The bill from House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, would cover farmworkers under Maine’s annually indexed minimum wage of $13.80 per hour. An amendment removed a portion of the original bill that would have allowed workers to benefit from overtime laws that mandate they receive 1 1/2 times their regular pay for hours worked over the 40-hour workweek.
The Legislature is returning Tuesday to vote on whether to override vetoes from Mills. At least two-thirds of lawmakers must vote to override a veto.
Mills wrote in her veto letter she supports a minimum wage for farmworkers but is concerned about “a series of questions from members of the agricultural community about the true scope of the language.” She pledged to issue an executive order to formally reestablish a group “to allow for a longer and more in-depth analysis” and present a bill based on those findings.
Maine is one of 19 states that does not apply its minimum wage laws to most farmworkers, according to the National Agricultural Law Center. This is in part because they are not classified as employees under state law, remaining subject to the $7.25 federal hourly minimum wage and left out of mandatory overtime laws.
Advocates for the minimum wage bill framed it as a racial justice issue. Proposals affecting farmworkers have divided Mills, a Democrat, and more progressive members of her party.
Mills vetoed last year a bill from Democratic lawmakers to allow farmworkers to collectively bargain, and her Wednesday move prompted a strong response from Talbot Ross who said the changes to the measure came after “countless hours” of negotiation.
“With her veto of LD 398, [Gov.] Mills is yet again using the power of her office to maintain inequality amongst Mainers,” Talbot Ross said in a statement.
The Maine AFL-CIO, a coalition of labor unions, said the veto “carries on the historical stain and stench of exploitation and racial exclusion.” The liberal Maine Center for Economic Policy said it ensured that one-fourth of farmworkers here will continue to live in poverty.
In April testimony on the bill, Mills’ agriculture department also called for bringing together a group to study “the full economic and labor impacts” of passing such a measure. A fiscal estimate for the initial bill only factored in relatively small regulation and enforcement costs to the state that could reach nearly $100,000 by 2024.
Farming interests, which have contested the minimum wage and collective bargaining bills, warned of millions in additional labor costs. The Maine Potato Board estimated the changes under the initial bill — including the overtime changes since carved out — would cost farms $3.6 million per year, arguing the bill did not account for unique growing seasons.
The debate regarding farmworkers comes amid record heat waves hitting much of the country this summer. Farmworkers are 35 times more likely to die of heat exposure than workers in other industries, according to the National Institutes of Health, but there is no federal heat standard that ensures their health and safety.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.