Maine Labor Laws (2025 Guide)

What’s New in 2025

• Increases for minimum wage and tipped minimum wage
• Payroll taxes for paid family and medical leave

Labor Law Posters

Federal labor law posters
State labor law posters

Wage and Hour Laws

Minimum Wage

From January 1, 2025, the state minimum wage in Maine is $14.65/hour. This applies to all employees, including public and private employees. 

Several cities have their own minimum wages. From January 1, 2025, Portland and Rockland’s minimum wage is $15.50/hour. 

Tipped Minimum Wage

The state’s tipped minimum wage and the tipped minimum wage in Portland and Rockland apply only to service employees: workers who earn at least $185 in tips each month. 

The tipped minimum wage in Maine is $7.33/hour. Employers can pay service employees this rate as long as their wages plus tips add up to $14.65/hour. 

In Portland and Rockland, the tipped minimum wage is $7.75/hour. 

Tips belong to employees—employers can’t take a share, nor can they deduct transaction fees from credit card tips. 

Tip pooling is allowed under state law under certain circumstances. 

Overtime Laws

Employers must pay workers 1.5 times their regular pay rate for hours over 40 a week. Employers can’t ask workers to do more than 80 hours of overtime in 2 weeks. 

Specific types of workers are exempt from overtime, including:

• Salaried executive, administrative, and professional employees who earn at least $845.21/week or $43,951/year.
• Car mechanics.
• Public sector workers, excluding employees of the State’s executive and judicial branches.
• Mariners.
• Those involved in supply chain activities relating to agricultural produce, meat and fish products, and perishable goods (canning, preserving, marketing, storing, distributing, etc.).

Private-sector employers can’t offer compensatory time (time off in lieu) instead of overtime pay. 

Break Laws

Meal and Rest Breaks

Employees working for businesses with 3 or more employees on duty at the same time are entitled to a 30-minute break after they work 6 hours. This break can be unpaid, as long as employees don’t do any work. 

An employment contract or collective bargaining agreement may set out different break requirements. 

Employers must give nursing employees breaks to express milk for up to 3 years after they have a baby. Employers should provide a clean, private location—other than a bathroom—for employees to do this. 

Recordkeeping Requirements

Maine employers must keep these records for 3 years:

• The hours employees work.
• Amount of wages paid to employees.

Scheduling Laws

There are currently no predictive scheduling laws in Maine that mandate advance notice of schedules, a scheduled day of rest, pay for schedule changes on short notice, or similar scheduling practices. 

A bill giving employees the right to request flexible schedules and requiring employers to consider these requests is being considered. Employers should watch for developments. 

Employee Compensation and Benefits

Reporting Time Pay

Employers don’t have to pay employees for turning up at a shift and being sent home immediately or early. 

Payday Frequency and Method

Maine employers must establish regular paydays at intervals of up to 16 days. Each payment must cover all wages earned up to 8 days before the payment date. 

This requirement doesn’t apply to salaried employees or family members employed by the employer. 

If an employer wants to extend the interval they’ve established, they must give employees 30 days of written notice. 

Employers can pay employees by cash, check, or direct deposit (as long as the employer doesn’t charge a transfer or transaction fee). 

Paystub Requirements

Employers must give employees a pay statement every pay period, detailing:

• Pay period dates.
• Total hours worked.
• Total wages earned.
• Any itemized deductions.

When an employee is paid by direct deposit, the employer must also provide a record of the transfer. 

Pay statements can be electronic if the employer provides employees with a way to access and print them. 

Wage Deductions and Garnishments

Employers can deduct from employees’ wages:

• Repayments for a loan, debt, or advance from the employer.
• Merchandise purchased from the employer.
• Sick or accident benefits or life or group insurance premiums.
• Rent, light, or water costs if the employee lives in company-owned accommodation.

Employers can’t deduct cash or inventory shortages, declined credit card transactions, or property damage from employees’ wages. 

Under state law, wage garnishments for private debts are limited to the lesser of:

• 25% of the employee’s weekly disposable earnings
• The amount by which the employee’s weekly disposable earnings is 40 times more than the federal minimum wage

Employers are prohibited from terminating a worker’s employment because of a wage garnishment. 

Federal limits apply to wage garnishments for federal taxes, student loans, and child support. 

Final Paycheck Laws

Final wages are due on the employee’s next scheduled payday. If an employer posts a check to an employee, they must receive it by the next payday. 

Workers’ Compensation

Most Maine employers are required to have workers’ compensation insurance in the event an employee injures themselves at work or develops a work-related illness. Employers can obtain insurance through a licensed insurer or self-insure. 

Workers’ compensation insurance may provide benefits to cover the cost of:

• Medical treatment.
• Lost wages (for workers who miss more than 7 days of work).
• The loss of a body part.
• Vocational rehabilitation.
• Death.

An employee must notify their employer of their injury within 60 days. 

For any injuries that result in a worker missing a day’s work, the employer must file an injury report with Maine’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) within 7 days and notify their insurer. They must also give the worker a copy of the report. 

Employers must complete and retain an injury report for any injuries requiring medical attention, but they need to file these with the WCB only if the employee loses at least 1 day of work. 

Under state law, an employer can require an individual to see a specific doctor for the first 10 days after an injury. An individual can change their doctor after this if they inform their employer. 

When a dispute over workers’ compensation occurs, a WCB Troubleshooter tries to resolve the dispute or send it to mediation. If mediation is unsuccessful, the employee can request a formal hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. 

Unemployment Insurance

Maine’s unemployment benefits program is funded by employer taxes paid on the first $12,000 of wages they pay to each employee every year. 

Individuals unemployed through no fault of their own may be able to access unemployment benefits. 

To be eligible for unemployment benefits, someone must:

• Have lost their job or had their hours reduced through no fault of their own.
• Actively look for work and be able and available to work.
• Have earned enough wages in their base period (the oldest 4 calendar quarters of the last 5 completed calendar quarters).

Individuals can apply online via the ReEmployMe portal or by phone. They must provide information such as their Social Security Number and details of their employers over the last 18 months. 

Weekly benefits currently range between $104 and $595 (with additional benefits for dependents). Individuals may receive benefits up to 26 weeks.

Employers must create an unemployment tax account in ReEmployME to file quarterly reports and make contribution payments. They should also respond to requests for information regarding unemployment insurance claims.

Both employers and individuals have the right to appeal an unemployment benefits decision. They have 30 days after the mailing date of the decision to do this. 

Maine’s Department of Labor administers unemployment benefits. Maine Careers Centers can provide help and support to individuals looking for work. 

Workplace Rights and Protections

Discrimination and Harassment

Under state law, Maine candidates and employees are protected from employment discrimination based on their:

• Race.
• Color.
• Ancestry.
• National origin.
• Sex, including pregnancy and related medical conditions.
• Sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Physical or mental disability.
• Religion.
• Age.
• Familial status.

Employers must provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related conditions, unless doing so would result in undue hardship to the employer. 

Maine’s Equal Pay Law requires employers to pay all employees the same wages for the same work, regardless of sex or race. 

Each year, employers must give employees specific written information on sexual harassment, including its illegality, the legal definition of it, and internal complaint processes. 

Employers with 15 or more employees must provide new hires with sexual harassment training within 1 year of the start of their employment. The law sets out the specific topics this training must cover. 

Employees who believe they’ve been discriminated against can file a complaint with Maine’s Human Rights Commission (MHRC). They must file a complaint as soon as possible and no later than 300 days after the alleged discrimination. 

The MHRC investigates the complaint and helps the parties to resolve the case informally through a settlement. If the settlement is completed as agreed, the MHRC closes the complaint. 

Otherwise, the investigator prepares a report and recommends whether there are reasonable grounds to find that discrimination happened. 

Parties have 17 days to register their disagreement with an investigator’s recommendation. The MHRC then considers and votes on the matter. 

If a complaint has been with the MHRC for at least 180 days, the individual can ask for a Right-to-Sue letter so they can take direct civil action. The deadline for filing in civil court is 2 years after the alleged discrimination or 90 days after the MHRC dismisses a complaint, issues a Right-to-Sue letter, or conciliation fails (whichever is greater). 

The MHCR and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) have a work-sharing agreement—any discrimination complaint with one agency will be dual-filed with the other. 

Leave Laws

✅ Family and Medical Leave	Family Medical Leave Employees who’ve worked at the same organization for 12 months can take up to 10 weeks of family medical leave in any 2 years.  This leave can be unpaid, and employees must give 30 days’ notice of accessing this leave, except in emergencies.  Employees who work at a permanent site with fewer than 15 employees aren’t eligible for this leave.  The purposes of this leave are to cover employees taking time off for: • Their own serious health condition. • The birth or adoption of a child. • A family member with a serious health condition. • Organ donation. • The death or serious health condition of a family member while serving on active duty. Paid Family and Medical Leave From January 1, 2025, all employers are subject to Maine’s paid family and medical leave program. Insured and self-insured employers that offer an equivalent of this leave can apply to opt out.  From May 1, 2026, eligible employees are entitled to up to 12 weeks of paid leave each year: • To bond with a new child after birth, adoption, or foster placement during their first 12 months. • To care for a family member or someone with whom they share a significant personal bond who has a serious health condition. • To support a family member who’s serving or has served on active duty. • To care for a family member injured during active duty. • Because they or a family member is a victim of violence, assault, sexual assault, or stalking. • Because of their own serious health condition. To donate an organ. To be eligible, employees must have earned 6 times the state average weekly wage during their base period (the first 4 of the last 5 calendar quarters before an individual’s benefit year).  Some workers are exempt, including those covered by the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act and federal government employees.  This leave is job-protected—as long as the employee has worked for the same employer for at least 120 days before their leave. Employees must provide reasonable notice of this leave. In non-emergency situations, 30 days is reasonable notice.  The maximum weekly benefit employees can receive is $1,144.67.  This leave is funded by a 1% payroll tax funded by employers (0.5%) and employees (0.5%), which starts January 1, 2025. Employers can choose to cover employees’ share. Employers with 14 or fewer employees don’t have to pay their part of this tax.  Paid family and medical leave runs concurrently with any federal FMLA or other leave entitlements.  Employers must post a notice in the workplace informing employees of their right to paid family and medical leave and provide written notice to all new employees within 30 days.
❌ Paid Sick Leave	While Maine doesn’t have a specific paid sick leave law, eligible employees can use their earned paid leave (see below) for this purpose. From May 2026, many employees can access paid family and medical leave. In the meantime, they may also be eligible for unpaid FMLA leave.
❌ Paid Family Leave	Maine also doesn’t have a standalone paid family leave law. However, starting May 2026, eligible employees can use paid family and medical leave for this purpose. Employees may also be able to access unpaid FMLA leave.
❌ Pregnancy and Parental Leave	Similarly, employees may use paid family and medical leave for these reasons (from May 2026). Unpaid FMLA leave may also be available.
✅ Vacation and Personal Leave	Under Maine’s earned paid leave law, employers with more than 10 employees must provide paid leave, which employees can use for any reason.  Employees accrue paid leave at 1 hour for every 40 hours, capped at 40 hours a year. Employers can also give employees their full leave allowance at the start of the year.  Employers can require employees to work for 120 days before they can access any paid leave they’ve accrued.  Employees can carry over up to 40 hours of unused paid leave into the following year.  Workers can be required to give at least 4 weeks’ notice to take this leave (unless it’s for an emergency), and they should tell their employer as soon as possible.

Other Mandatory Leave

Military Leave	The federal Uniformed Services Employment Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) applies to employees in Maine.  Under state law, members of the National Guard or Reserves of the US Armed Forces can take a job-protected leave of absence from their work to serve.
Family Military Leave	Employers with 15 or more employees must give employees up to 15 days of family military leave. Whether this leave is paid is up to the employer.  Family military leave can be used during: • The 15 days before a family member is deployed.  • Their deployment—if the family member is given leave. • The 15 days immediately after the family member’s return.  This leave is available to employees who’ve worked for the same organization for at least 12 months and 1,250 hours.  For leave lasting more than 5 days in a row, employees must give their employer at least 14 days’ notice.
Jury Duty Leave	Employers can’t terminate a worker’s employment or health coverage for responding to a jury service summons or serving on a jury.
Victims of Violence Leave	Employees can take leave (paid or unpaid) because they or their child, parent, or spouse is a victim of violence, assault, sexual assault, or stalking.  This covers leave to prepare for and attend court proceedings, seek medical treatment, and access crisis services.  Some limited exceptions exist—for example, where it would cause the employer undue hardship.
Emergency Responder Leave	Employers can’t terminate the employment of someone away from work because they were responding to an emergency as a firefighter or emergency medical services personnel.  Employees must try to immediately notify their employer of an absence due to emergency reponse.

Child Labor Laws

Maine’s minimum working age is 14 years old, with limited exceptions including:

• Agricultural employment where they don’t have contact with hazardous machinery or substances.
• School lunch programs, where they only serve or clean up.
• Working for their parents in a non-hazardous role.

Any worker under 16 years of age must have a work permit. Work permits are attached to specific jobs, so minors need a new one for each new job they get. They can have 1 work permit during the school year and 2 during summer. 

Minors can obtain a permit from the office of the superintendent of schools (approved by the Department of Labor). Employers must keep the permit on file and return it to the Department of Labor when the minor employee stops working for them. 

Employers must keep the following records for any minor workers for 3 years:

• Daily start times.
• Daily end times.
• Total daily hours.

Maine law restricts minors’ working hours and types of work as follows:

	14 and 15-year-olds	16 and 17-year-olds
When school is in session	Generally can’t work: • More than 6 consecutive days • Before 7am or after 7pm (9pm during summer vacation) When school is in session, can’t work: • More than 3 hours/school day • More than 18 hours/school week	*Hourly restrictions apply only to 16 and 17-year-olds enrolled in school. Generally can’t work: • More than 6 consecutive days • Before 7am on a school day or 5am on a non-school day • After 10:15pm the night before a school day (midnight if there’s no school the next day) When school is in session, can’t work: • More than 6 hours/school day • More than 8 hours/last day of school week • More than 10 hours/non-school days • More than 24 hours/week • More than 50 hours/week in any week with less than 3 school days or the first and last week of school
When school isn’t in session	Can’t work: • More than 8 hours/day • More than 40 hours/week	Can’t work: • More than 10 hours/day • More than 50 hours/week
	There are some exceptions to the hourly restrictions on minors, including for minors working in agricultural employment, as actors, or at children’s camps.
Limits on types of work	Minors aged 14 and 15 years old can’t work in various occupations, including: • Manufacturing • Mining • Driving a motor vehicle • Construction, including roofing • Cooking (except for soda fountains, lunch counters, snack bars, and cafeterias) • Welding • Using toxic chemicals or paints	Minors under 18 years of age can’t work in various occupations, including: • Manufacturing and storing explosives • Mining • Driving a motor vehicle on public roads • Power-driven woodworking machines • Slaughtering and meatpacking • Roofing • Excavation • Working at heights
	Some limited exceptions allow minors to drive and work with alcoholic beverages.  Complete lists of prohibited occupations for minors in Maine can be found on page 9 of Maine’s Employers’ Guide to Youth Employment booklet.

Violations of Maine’s child labor laws can attract civil penalties between $250 and $50,000. 

Workplace Safety and Health

Maine employers are covered by its state plan, which adopts the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standards. 

For the private sector, these standards include:

• Creating a safe and healthy workplace free from hazards.
• Giving employees the safe tools and equipment they need to do their job.
• Providing workplace safety training in a language employees understand.
• Displaying an OSHA poster in the workplace.
• Reporting any workplace fatalities within 8 hours and any inpatient hospitalization, amputations, or loss of an eye within 24 hours to the Maine OSHA office.
• Maintaining an injury and illness log (this applies only to employers with 11 or more workers).

Employees must comply with workplace safety and health standards and use necessary safety equipment. They can report unsafe working conditions to Maine OSHA and are protected from employer retaliation for doing so. 

State law also provides specific standards for the occupational health and safety of farm workers and housing standards for agricultural workers. 

Maine’s SafetyWorks! Program offers various resources and services to help employers create safe and healthy work environments, including sample plans, audits, and training. 

Labor Union Regulations

Maine doesn’t have any right-to-work laws. While employers can’t require workers to join a union as a condition of employment, they can require them to pay union dues.  

State laws govern public sector employees’ collective bargaining rights. The Maine Labor Relations Board enforces these laws and hears labor disputes. 

The federal National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) covers private sector employees in Maine, with limited exceptions, including agricultural employees and independent contractors. Under the NLRA, employees have the right to:

• Organize and join unions.
• Collectively bargain with employers.
• Speak to colleagues about working conditions.
• Strike and picket.

Employment Contracts and Severance

Employment Contract Laws

Many Maine employees are in at-will employment. They or their employer can end the employment agreement for any reason, as long as it’s not illegal—e.g., discrimination—or for no reason. 

A collective bargaining agreement or employment contract can replace a presumed at-will employment relationship. 

Non-compete agreements are enforceable in Maine only if they’re reasonable and are no more than necessary to protect a legitimate business interest of the employer. A legitimate business interest is a trade secret, confidential information, or the employer’s goodwill. 

The law encourages employers to use non-solicitation or confidentiality agreements to protect these interests, rather than non-competes. 

Workers must be notified of the requirement to sign a non-compete before an offer of employment, and non-competes can’t start until 1 year after the employee is hired or 6 months after they sign the agreement—whichever is later. 

Non-competes can never be used for certain workers, including:

• Those earning 4 times the federal poverty level or below.
• Veterinarians working for a business they don’t own.

Non-poaching agreements between employers are prohibited in Maine. 

Severance Pay

Severance pay is required only for employees who lose their jobs due to the business permanently closing or a mass layoff.

This obligation applies only to businesses that employed at least 100 workers in the previous 12 months and employees who worked for the employer for more than 3 years. 

This pay is calculated at a rate of 1 week’s pay for each year they’ve worked for the employer (with partial pay for partial years). 

Additional State-Specific Employment Laws

Fair chance employment	Employers can’t ask job applicants about their criminal histories in a job application. They can ask only during an interview or once the employer has decided the applicant is otherwise qualified for the job.  Employers also can’t state in a job advertisement that candidates with criminal histories can’t apply (with limited exceptions).
Smoking	Employers must have a written policy about smoking on business premises. This policy must ban smoking indoors and can ban it throughout the entire business premises.
Drug-free workplaces	Employers must comply with various requirements if they want to drug test employees. These include having a written policy approved by the Department of Labor and providing a copy to all employees.  Employers with more than 20 full-time employees must have an employee assistance program before drug testing employees.
Mini-COBRA	Maine’s mini-COBRA law allows for continuation of health coverage requirements for employees not covered by the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). The mini-COBRA law applies to employers with fewer than 20 employees.
Social media privacy	Employers are prohibited from requiring employees to provide their personal social media passwords or to access their social media accounts in front of the employer.
Whistleblower protections	Maine’s Whistleblowers’ Protection Act protects workers from retaliation (including termination) because they reported a legal violation or health and safety risk, refused to do something that would endanger life, or participated in an investigation.  This law applies only to employees who raised the issue with their employer and gave them reasonable time to address it.

Legal Resources for Employers and Employees

The Maine Department of Labor website has links to information on various topics, including wage and hour laws, workers’ compensation, and employing minors. The Employee Rights Guide is a good place to start. 

The Department also has an Ask the Expert feature where you can submit your labor law question. 

Employees seeking free labor and employment law advice can try:

• Virtual Workers’ Rights Legal Clinic, hosted weekly by the Southern Maine Workers’ Center and Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project.
• Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project, which connects low-income earners with volunteer lawyers.
• Pine Tree Legal Assistance, which provides information on various work topics and has a special Farmworker Unit.

Disclaimer

The information presented on this website about labor laws in Maine is a summary for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. However, laws and regulations regularly change and may vary depending on individual circumstances. While we have made every effort to ensure the information provided is up to date and reliable, we cannot guarantee its completeness, accuracy, or applicability to your specific situation. Therefore, we strongly recommend that readers seek guidance from their legal department or a qualified attorney to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Please note that we cannot be held liable for any actions taken or not taken based on the information presented on this website.