MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 8, 2025
The difference between the federal hourly minimum wage ($7.25) and the Maine state minimum wage ($14.65, and automatically increasing according to inflation) is $7.40 an hour. This gulf, endured by the people who labor in the state’s fields and barns, is what stands to be closed by a legislative proposal (An Act to Establish a State Minimum Hourly Wage for Agricultural Workers) that passed 74-72 in the Maine House of Representatives last Tuesday and 22-12 in the Senate last Monday. Farmworker labor shouldn’t be relied on to subsidize Maine’s farms, some of which say they won’t be able to manage paying the increased minimum hourly wage. Other farms say they’re already paying the state minimum, and would like to benefit from parity in the job market. Those farms deserve that guarantee, just as the workers deserve it.