The difference between the federal hourly minimum wage ($7.25) and the Maine state minimum wage ($14.65, and automatically increasing according to the inflation that has preyed on consumers’ minds in recent years) is $7.40 an hour.

This gap — more of a 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.

Advocates for farmworkers have been agitating for this change for years. Maine’s 11,000-odd farmworkers are, no surprise, overwhelmingly in favor of it. The basic dollar differential in the opening paragraph above is reason enough for us. Add to that the nature of the work and the fact that Maine’s farm workforce is disproportionately made up of people in the social and economic minority and it becomes a question of common sense, common decency.

All indications are that Gov. Janet Mills will lend her support to the proposal, which is not dissimilar to a measure she proposed last year. The bill doesn’t contain provisions that have acted as “dealbreakers” in the past, namely that farmworkers would have a pathway to take legal action against employers over certain violations.

As the wage law was assessed by state legislators in Augusta, some of the debate reportedly descended into a bit of culture-war squabbling: arguments about slavery here, indignation about alleged allegations of racism there. The lawmakers advancing this bill shouldn’t have needed to lean on the invocation of historical injustice to get it over the line — the ongoing denial of the state minimum wage to this group of workers speaks, very loudly, for itself.

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.

We’re encouraged that this reform is poised, finally, to be made.