Dairy sector labor report
A new report says migrant workers power much of Vermont’s $5.4 billion dairy industry but are routinely denied basic labor protections. The piece documents denials of overtime, unsafe housing, limited access to health care, and highlights farmworker advocacy by groups such as Migrant Justice. (theguardian.com)
Migrant workers do much of the labor on Vermont dairy farms, but many still work without overtime pay, minimum-wage coverage, or union rights. (theguardian.com) Vermont’s dairy sector generates about $5.4 billion a year, and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture says more than 90% of farms in a recent state survey employed migrant workers. The state has roughly 480 farms, 113,000 cows and 7,500 goats. (foodmanufacturing.com) Migrant Justice, a farmworker advocacy group, says immigrant workers make up about 80% of hired non-family labor in Vermont dairy, or about 1,000 workers statewide. In testimony to lawmakers on February 20, 2026, the group said that share is even higher in lower-paid jobs such as milking, feeding and calf care. (legislature.vermont.gov) The legal gap is old and specific. Vermont law excludes agricultural workers from the state minimum wage, and federal law generally exempts agricultural employees from overtime requirements, with some minimum-wage coverage depending on farm size. (legislature.vermont.gov) (dol.gov) A legislative committee recommended in December 2024 that Vermont extend state minimum wage and overtime protections to farmworkers, with overtime starting after 60 hours a week. The same committee did not make a recommendation on collective bargaining rights. (vermontpublic.org) The latest numbers cited by advocates come from a 2024 survey of 212 immigrant dairy workers on farms outside the Milk with Dignity program. Migrant Justice said 87% earned less than Vermont’s then-minimum wage of $13.67 an hour, and the median wage was $11.67. (migrantjustice.net) The same survey said 77% of workers had suffered work-related health problems, 82% reported problems with employer-provided housing, and 53% reported discrimination. More than half said they worked at least 12 hours a day, and 95% said they worked six or seven days a week. (migrantjustice.net) Vermont Public reported in October 2024 that these results were worse on several measures than a similar 2014 survey. Clare Hammonds of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Labor Center, which collaborated on the survey, said workers reported injuries from cows, chemical exposure without proper gear, and chronic back and neck pain. (vermontpublic.org) Migrant Justice points to Milk with Dignity, a worker-driven program it launched in 2018, as the model it wants expanded through dairy supply chains. This month, the group said it took its campaign to the Netherlands and to Ahold Delhaize’s United States offices to press Hannaford to join the program. (legislature.vermont.gov) (migrantjustice.net) Immigration enforcement has added another layer of pressure. After eight workers were arrested on a Vermont dairy farm on April 21, 2025, advocates and lawyers said the raid spread fear through a workforce that farms across the Northeast depend on. (foodmanufacturing.com) The argument in Vermont is no longer about whether migrant workers are central to dairy production. It is about whether the labor rules on those farms will keep treating the people who milk the cows, clean the barns and feed the calves as exceptions. (theguardian.com)
