Employment and labor laws in Maine [Updated 2024]

Employment laws protect employees from discrimination, offer leaves of absence, enforce health standards for work-related injuries or accidents, and much more. 

While many states don’t diverge much from federal employment laws, Maine charts its own course with unique state statutes that offer employees more robust workplace protections. Maine was the first state to enact paid earned leave measures. They even recently passed a paid family and medical leave law and required niche workplace safety training for employees working four or more hours a day at a computer.

If you want to comply with Maine’s employment regulations, you can scale your business with Rippling’s Professional Employment Organization service. Rippling PEO handles your tax registration and management while steering you clear of costly compliance mistakes.

Employment vs. labor law: What’s the difference?

The terms “employment law” and “labor law” are often used interchangeably. But, the latter term refers to a specialized area within employment law that deals with employers and unions. Here’s a breakdown of the distinctions between the two:

• Employment law: Concerns issues between an employer and an individual employee—such as hours, wages, overtime, and workplace discrimination. 
• Labor law: Focuses on issues between an employer and a group of employees (e.g., a labor union)—such as union membership and collective bargaining agreements. 

Wages and hours in Maine

Unlike many states, which defer to federal guidelines, Maine sets its own wage requirements, managed by the Maine Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Standards.

Minimum wage in Maine

Maine’s minimum wage increases annually relative to the cost of living. As of January 2024, Maine’s minimum wage is $14.15 an hour—significantly more than the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.

If you employ workers across different states, don’t assume the minimum wage is the same. Another northeastern state, like Massachusetts, has a minimum wage of $15.00 an hour. No matter where your employees live, Rippling automatically flags wage violations based on state regulations to ensure compliance. 

Overtime pay in Maine

Employees may need to occasionally work overtime to meet unexpected job demands or complete a crucial project. According to overtime laws in Maine—and consistent with federal law—employers owe employees 1.5x their regular hourly rate for every hour worked beyond the standard 40 hours per week (though this doesn’t apply to certain automobile workers). Employers are prohibited from requiring employees to work more than 80 hours of overtime over a two-week period, with some exceptions for emergency services and agricultural work. 

It’s crucial to adhere to overtime pay requirements—in Maine and wherever else your employees live. Rippling’s payroll software automatically adjusts pay rates for employees when their hours trigger overtime pay requirements.

Pay transparency in Maine

Since 2018, states across the US have either adopted or considered implementing pay transparency laws, which require employers to disclose salary ranges to both current and prospective employees. The laws intend to close pay gaps and prevent wage disparities between genders, races, and ages. 

In Maine, statutes include an equal pay law that prohibits employers from offering inconsistent wages between men and women with similar jobs. Employers are also prohibited from asking about an employee's compensation history until after the new job’s compensation is negotiated to prevent perpetuating any existing pay gaps. 

In 2023, the Maine legislature passed a pay transparency bill, although it has yet to be signed into law. This bill will require:

• Workplaces of 10 or more employees to include salary ranges in all job postings
• Workplaces with 10 or fewer employees to disclose pay ranges upon a job applicant’s request
• All employees to have access to their current position’s pay range upon request

Breaks and rest periods in Maine

Maine doesn’t require employers to offer meal breaks, but businesses with three or more employees working at once are required to offer a 30-minute unpaid break after six consecutive hours of work—unless otherwise stipulated in a written agreement. 

Employers also have to adhere to both federal and state child labor laws. In Maine, minors under 16 years of age need a work permit issued through a school superintendent’s office. Minors younger than 17 can’t work during school hours, and 16 and 17-year-olds can only work six hours on school days and 10 hours on non-school days. 

Additionally, working mothers protected under the federal government’s Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) are entitled to break time for breastfeeding their nursing child. 

Leaves of absence in Maine

Employees may need to take time off from work for pressing personal matters—like receiving treatment for a serious health condition or caring for a loved one. Maine authorizes eligible employees to deprioritize work in these circumstances, requiring employers of 15 or more workers to provide up to 10 weeks of job-protected leave for:

• Caring for a family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a health condition
• Suffering from a personal health condition
• The birth or adoption of a new child (or a domestic partner's new child)
• If a family member in the Armed Forces dies or becomes injured on active duty
• Organ donation

Employees need to have worked for at least 12 consecutive months before becoming eligible for this leave. 

While this leave is currently unpaid, Maine’s governor recently signed a new paid family medical leave law. Starting in 2026, eligible Maine employees will get up to 12 weeks of paid time off for:

• Medical leave
• Caregiver leave
• Safe leave (for a victim of violence from domestic or sexual assault)
• Parental leave
• Leave during a loved one’s military deployment

At the federal level, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible Maine employees with protected, unpaid leaves of absence for similar life events or personal crises. Under the federal guidelines, employees are eligible for this leave if they’ve worked:

• At least 12 months total over the past seven years 
• At least 1,250 hours over the past year
• For an employer with 50 or more employees living within 75 miles

Eligible employees can get 12 weeks of FMLA leave (either continuous or intermittent) per fiscal year. Employees who are the spouse, child, parent, or next of kin of a sick or injured military service member get up to 26 weeks of caregiver leave. 

Maine’s Bureau of Human Resources, within its Department of Administrative and Financial Services, manages the state’s FMLA leave. 

While FMLA leave is unpaid, employees or employers can often choose to use types of accrued paid time off (like sick leave or vacation pay) to cover parts of the leave period.

Earned paid leave in Maine

In 2021, Maine became the first state to require private employers to offer earned paid time off. The law applies to workforces with 10 or more employees and requires them to provide one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked, up to a ceiling of 40 hours of paid leave a year. Employees start accumulating this leave on their first day of work. It can be used for any reason with advance notice—but they can’t take it until after 120 days on the job. 

Other types of leave in Maine

Every year, Maine employees are allowed to take up to 40 hours of family sick leave to take care of a sick family member (child, spouse, or parent). Maine employees can also take:

• Jury duty leave: Employers can’t penalize employees who respond to a jury summons or serve on a jury.
• Military leave of absence: Maine employees in the US National Guard or Armed Forces are entitled to leaves of absence if called to duty.
• Family military leave: Workforces of 15 or more employees are required to give at least 15 days of leave to the family of military service members who are deployed for longer than 180 days.
• Safe leave: Employers are required to offer reasonable and necessary leave for Maine employees dealing with domestic violence issues (prepare for court, receive medical treatment, support family members receiving medical treatment, etc.).

Maine has more robust leave policies than most other US states, and they’re set to change again in a few years. Rippling can help you customize and automate leave policies for your Maine employees, providing complete transparency into how they use it.

Workplace safety in Maine 

Maine employers must provide a safe working environment for all workers, which includes offering safety training for dangerous equipment and implementing protocols for workplace hazards. 

Officials in the Maine Department of Labor inspect workplaces. Employees have the right to refuse to do jobs they think are unsafe and have the right to know of any workplace dangers. Maine also has a voluntary outreach program known as SafetyWorks that consults with businesses on how to mitigate injuries, illnesses, and accidental deaths on the job. 

Even Maine employees with desk jobs need training. The Maine Video Display Terminal law stipulates that if an employee works on a computer for four or more hours a day, they need to receive training on how to operate their equipment and set up an ergonomic workstation. 

Like all other states, Maine adheres to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations, which is the federal agency that sets and enforces safe workplace standards for employers across the US. OSHA has a State Plan with Maine, meaning it enforces federal regulations through a state-run entity—in Maine’s case, through the Department of Labor’s Workplace Safety and Health Division. Maine has OSHA offices in the capital city, Augusta, and Bangor.

In Maine, private employers of 11 or more workers and all public sector agencies need to keep OSHA injury and illness logs.

Rippling PEO offers a pay-as-you-go workers’ compensation insurance plan that helps you scale your business—in Maine and anywhere in the US—without paying up-front for coverage.

Discrimination and harassment laws in Maine

According to the Maine Human Rights Act, the state strictly prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of:

• Race
• Sex
• Gender identity
• Genetic predisposition
• Religion
• National origin
• Age
• Color
• Mental disability
• Sexual orientation 
• Physical disability
• Ancestry

Employees can file discrimination complaints with the Maine Human Rights Commission or the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 

Maine also gives employees the right to work in a place free of sexual harassment. The state follows the EEOC’s federal guidelines for sexual harassment, which defines it as unwelcome verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that:

• Implicitly or explicitly affects an individual’s job status or employment opportunities
• Interferes with an employee’s work
• Creates a hostile work environment

According to the Maine Department of Labor, examples of sexual harassment include unwelcome sexual advances and unwanted physical contact like hugs, touching, kisses, obscene verbal remarks, or requests for sexual favors. 

Keep in mind that employers are responsible for any harassment or discrimination that occurs in the workplace—whether or not they were aware of it taking place.

Maine is one of seven states that mandates certain employees receive sexual harassment training. According to Maine’s law, workplaces with 15 or more employees must conduct educational programs for every new worker during their first year on the job. Employers need to provide a written notice defining sexual harassment, notify employees that it’s illegal, provide examples, and teach employees how to identify and report such misconduct. 

If you want to stay on top of training programs in the states where it’s mandatory, Rippling’s Learning Management System comes with pre-loaded sexual harassment courses to ensure employees get locally compliant educational resources. 

The EEOC and Maine Human Rights Commission will look at the nature and context of alleged conduct on a case-by-case basis to determine whether it was severe enough to be illegal. 

Unions in Maine

A labor union is a group of employees who join together to negotiate better work conditions—like higher wages, better benefits, or rules governing promotions—as this “collective bargaining” increases their negotiating power. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is a federal statute that guarantees all employees the right to:

• Create or start a trade union.
• Collectively bargain for work conditions through elected union representatives.
• File complaints with their employer to address deficient work conditions.
• Strike or picket when demands aren’t met.
• Refrain from joining a union.

The NLRA also outlaws employers from prohibiting, discouraging, bribing, or otherwise threatening employees who want to join a union.

While the NLRA’s statutes apply to all US employees, some states have “right-to-work” laws, meaning employees can't be forced to join a union or pay dues as a condition of their employment. According to the Maine labor laws, Maine is not a right-to-work state. While Maine employees aren’t required to join a union, non-union workers still have to pay dues for union services. According to 2023 Bureau of Labor and Statistics data, 9.2% of Maine employees are union members, and 10.8% are represented by unions. 

Also, at the state level, Maine has its own “strikebreaker” law that prohibits employers from hiring third-party entities to quell strikes during a labor dispute.

FAQs about Maine labor and employment laws

Are independent contractors covered under Maine employment laws?

Independent contractors typically aren’t afforded the same protections as full-time employees. You can use Rippling’s classification analyzer tool to better distinguish the two worker classes, helping ensure you’re not misclassifying employees as contractors. 

Does at-will employment exist in Maine?

Maine mostly recognizes at-will employment, meaning employers can terminate employees for almost any reason. That said, employees who are union members may be protected from termination without sufficient notice or cause as stipulated in collective bargaining agreements. Employers also can’t terminate employees for discriminatory reasons or refusing to work in unsafe conditions. 

Are background checks legal in Maine?

Yes. Provided employers obtain prior consent, they can run background checks on prospective Maine employees. Some jobs, including hospice providers, drug treatment centers, and mental healthcare facilities, require background checks. Maine has a “ban the box” law that restricts criminal history checks until after an applicant gets an initial interview or job offer. 

Are whistleblowers protected in Maine?

Yes. Maine’s Whistleblowers' Protection Act outlaws employers from firing employees for reporting violations, filing complaints about health and safety risks, participating in a government investigation, or reporting a medical error as a healthcare worker. To be protected under this law, employees need to notify supervisors about the workplace issue. 

Is workers’ compensation coverage required in Maine?

Yes. Most employers are required to offer workers’ compensation to cover job-related accidents, injuries, or illnesses. In the case of an accident, employers should file a “first report” of the injury within a week and then notify the Maine Workers’ Compensation Board. 

Are there required healthcare benefits in Maine?

The federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers of more than 50 full-time employees to provide health coverage. While smaller workforces aren’t technically required to provide healthcare, Maine has a statewide health insurance marketplace where employers can apply to the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) and potentially receive a tax credit. 

What employee protections are available in Maine if layoffs occur?

The Maine Department of Labor has an unemployment insurance (UI) scheme that offers temporary payments to individuals who lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are available to work. Laid-off Maine employees are also entitled to severance pay equal to one week’s pay per calendar year of employment. Employers need to give discharged employees their final payments in full by the next scheduled payday.

Does the state of Maine have drug testing requirements?

State law in Maine allows employers to drug test employees as long as certain criteria are met, such as providing a written policy describing the substance-testing protocol.

Disclaimer: Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.