A report prepared by the Department of Labor in February made very clear that hired farmworkers are at the bottom of the wage scale. Their average earnings of $1 an hour in May of last year were only 27 percent of earnings in contract construction. onethird of those in mining. 40 percent of those in manfacturing and wholesaling. and about half of those in the retail trades. Over the years migrant farmworkers have commonly earned less than the average unskilled worker is likely to pay each year in taxes alone. It is obviously an inadequate wage and an indefensible standard. Perhaps even more inadequate and indefensible is the proposal to establish a different minimum wage for agricultural workers.