MISSISSIPPI - Workers’ Rights

Definition of agricultural worker under state law:

Wages and Overtime

Minimum Wage

Mississippi does not have a state minimum wage law.   Mississippi statutorily prohibits counties and municipalities from establishing minimum wages or living wages.  (Miss. Code Ann. § 17-151(1)).

Overtime

• Mississippi does not have a state law regarding overtime pay.  

State Enforcement Agency

Federal Enforcement Agency: 

Mississippi Department of Employment Security

Website: https://mdes.ms.gov/ 
Relevant Forms: https://www.dol.gov/whd/howtofilecomplaint.htm

Occupational Safety and Health

Workers’ Compensation

• “Farm laborers” are not covered by the state workers’ compensation law (only workers employed processing agricultural products are covered.) (Miss. Code Ann. § 71-5).  Agricultural employers may voluntarily elect to provide workers’ compensation coverage to their employees. (Miss. Code Ann. § 71-3-5).

State Enforcement Agency:
Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission

Website: https://mwcc.ms.gov/#/home 
Relevant Forms: https://mwcc.ms.gov/#/forms

Field Sanitation

• Mississippi does not have a state law regarding field sanitation. 

Federal Enforcement Agency:
US DOL, Mississippi OSHA Office

Website: https://www.osha.gov/contactus/bystate/MS/areaoffice

Pesticide Safety

The Mississippi Pesticide Law regulates pesticide use in the state.  (Miss. Ann. Code §§ 69-23-1, et seq.).  

• Suspected pesticide poisoning is a reportable illness for health care providers. Physicians and health providers are required to report pesticide poison to the office of epidemiology within the state’s department of health. 

State Enforcement Agency:

Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce
Website: https://www.mdac.ms.gov/bureaus-departments/plant-industry/pesticide-program/

Mississippi State Department of Health

Website: https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/14,0,194.html

Right to Join Unions and Collective Bargaining in Agriculture

• There is no provision (or judicial interpretation of a provision) in the state constitution that grants farmworkers the right to join and organize labor unions free from retaliation or to engage in collective bargaining with their employers.
• Mississippi is a “right to work” state.  (Miss. Code Ann. § 71-1-47).  Like most right to work laws, Mississippi’s statute also prohibits an employer from requiring workers to abstain from joining a labor union.  (Miss. Code Ann. § 71-1-47)(c)).
• Mississippi law allows the state to regulate and restrict labor neutrality agreements as labor organizing tools.  (Miss. Code Ann. § 17-15-1, et seq.) 

State Legal Services Organizations

Southern Migrant Legal Services – A Project of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc.
https://www.trla.org/southern-migrant-legal-services-smls

Southern Poverty Law Center- Immigrant Justice Project
http://www.splcenter.org