Springfield lawmakers are backing a major legislative push to raise the state's farm worker minimum wage from $8 to $15 an hour and secure overtime benefits. While advocates argue the current wage exemptions allowing lower wages are deeply harmful. Agricultural groups say that struggling Western mass farmers can't absorb this adjusted cost. Reporter Colin Young of the State House News Service explains what those opposed to this measure, the farmer advocates, are specifically saying.
Colin Young, SHNS: A lot of them say that they don't actually oppose the increased minimum wage. It's actually everything else in the bill that they just can't stand becoming law.
So, groups like the Farm Bureau Federation say that a lot of farmers already pay their farm workers more than the $8 per hour subminimum wage. But it's these other mandates on farms that they say would be too great of a burden.
The average Massachusetts farm only clears about $13,000 in net income a year. So they say that in putting any new mandates on farms is going to squeeze that margin even further and make running a farm even less realistic.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: With a key committee vote deadline coming up next week. What are legislators signaling? Is this likely to gain traction or die in committee for a third straight session?
It looks at least likely to keep going for now, to stay alive and to to stay in the mix for a while longer. The Senate version of this bill has a committee vote deadline coming up, but House members have already advanced similar legislation out of committee and into the Ways and Means Committee. So, it's probably likely that the Senate will follow suit, and that will at least keep this issue active to see if there is ground where the House and Senate can find agreement.
Yes, that compromise. Pressure is mounting on Governor Maura Healey to opt Massachusetts into a new federal scholarship tax credit program. Donors can make contributions of up to $1,700 to an approved scholarship group in a participating state that would be distributed as aid.
This is an issue that has quickly turned into a nationwide political football. While Democratic governors in states like Wisconsin and Kentucky have vetoed participation over concerns that the private voucher system lacks public accountability, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Mike Minogue has upped the ante for Healey by promising a maximum campaign donation if she signs on now (and pledges to enact it himself on day one if he's elected.) So, what is known about how this program would impact Massachusetts education funding?
There's not a lot specifically known.
Now, the teachers unions have come out in full force against this. They argue that this is the same as what's known as the voucher system, where they see it as a siphoning of public money towards private education, where by giving people tax credits for these donations that largely benefit private organizations and private schooling, that it's taking money away from public education.
Now, people being able to take a $1,700 tax credit could help in the name of affordability, at a time when Massachusetts has a really high cost of living and our governor is up for reelection, pledging to tackle that high cost of living. So, she has a real tough spot to be in right now.
What are we hearing from the Healy administration regarding her timeline for a decision?
They're playing the 'wait and see game' big time. They have said they have not decided that the state will not opt in, but they want to see more detailed rules from the US Treasury and the IRS before they actually decide to opt in.
And has the other Republican gubernatorial candidate, Brian Shortsleeve, weighed in on this issue?
He has. He's in support as well. He has said that if he's elected, he would opt Massachusetts in on day one as well.
The Monday morning radio segment and podcast 'Beacon Hill in 5' will take a brief hiatus, returning July 20, 2026.
Some NEPM employees are in an employee union affiliated with the Massachusetts Teachers Association. That affiliation does not affect how we cover the news
