Sen. Talbot Ross bill to establish minimum wage for farmworkers receives initial support from the Senate in bipartisan vote
AUGUSTA — On Monday, June 2, the Maine Senate voted in an initial, bipartisan vote to advance legislation from Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, that would establish a state minimum wage for agricultural workers — a class of workers historically excluded from Maine’s wage and hour laws. LD 589, “An Act to Establish a State Minimum Hourly Wage for Agricultural Workers,” would guarantee that farmworkers are paid at least the state minimum wage beginning in 2026, with automatic yearly adjustments tied to the cost of living.
“For too long, Maine law has sanctioned a system of exclusion — one that allowed some of our most essential workers to be paid less than a living wage,” said Sen. Talbot Ross. “LD 589 is a necessary step toward fairness, dignity and equity. Farmworkers deserve the same baseline protections as every other worker in our state.”
Maine’s current labor laws do not guarantee agricultural workers a state minimum wage, leaving them legally vulnerable to being paid as little as the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour — a rate that has not changed since 2009 and falls far short of meeting basic living costs.
The bill builds on years of legislative effort to address these inequities. Similar proposals were considered in the LD 1022 in the 130th Legislature and LD 398 in the 131st Legislature, helping lay the groundwork for this session’s compromise language. The amended version of LD 589 replaces the original bill with a focused measure to establish a state minimum wage for farmworkers, indexed to inflation.
The exclusion of farmworkers from basic labor protections dates back to the New Deal era, when federal lawmakers deliberately left agricultural and domestic workers out of landmark labor laws in order to appease segregationist lawmakers. That exclusion has persisted for nearly a century and continues to disproportionately affect Black, brown, Latino and Indigenous workers today.
LD 589 now faces additional votes in the House and Senate.
Sen. Talbot Ross is serving her first term in the Maine Senate, representing part of her hometown of Portland and Peaks Island. She serves as the Senate Chair of the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee and sits on the Judiciary Committee.