Labor advocates call Gov. Mills’ veto of her own farmworker wage bill ‘an embarrassment’

Arthur Phillips, policy analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Policy who served on the minimum wage committee, said Mills “has reaffirmed farmworkers’ second-class status in Maine’s economy.”

Pointing to the multiple bills related to agricultural workers that the governor has vetoed over the years, Phillips said, “People who milk our cows and harvest our food will remain among the most essential yet unprotected workers in our state, without a right to be paid the minimum wage or even receive a pay stub.” He added that farmworkers, who are “disproportionately people of color and are 4.5 times as likely as others to live in poverty, deserve far better.”

Click here to read the full story, first published April 23, 2024 in Maine Morning Star.