The hearing was held on Monday in Hartford Michigan, a little over nine years after the Michigan Civil Rights Commission released the first report on the conditions of migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the state. At the time one of the most urgent concerns migrant and seasonal farm workers had was with unpaid wages.
Today, Jose Ernesto Lopez, an immigrant rights paralegal, says underpayment continues to be a problem.
“We are seeing that their wages don’t reflect the actual Michigan minimum wage, which is of concern because a lot of folks continue to work at these same places of employment year after year after year.”
Ernesto Lopez says farmworkers are paid hourly, salary or by piece rate. Piece rate is when farmworkers are paid by the number of pounds or number of bushels that they harvest
“When we do the conversion to see if they meet a lot of the Michigan minimum wage requirement we most often time see that farm workers aren’t being paid the Michigan minimum wage of $9.45 an hour.”
And this is because in late 2017, Former Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette ruled that certain migrant and seasonal farm workers were not entitled to minimum wage under state laws; but earlier this year, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission asked Attorney General Dana Nessel to reconsider the ruling.
According to a press release from the commission, the hearing held this week is the first of two hearings scheduled to gather information for the upcoming report on the working conditions of seasonal and migrant farm workers.
Michelle Jokisch Polo, WGVU News.