How to implement Maine's new paid leave rules

While Maine employers have been hearing about Maine’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave Program for months, the information is dense, and there is a lot of misinformation floating around about what the law provides.

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Tawny Alvarez

Here are the answers to the top four questions that are on many employers’ minds about the new law.

Does the law apply to my company?

Likely yes. The program applies to all Maine employees (regardless of company size) with limited exemptions (railroad employees, incarcerated individuals, some students and federal employees). Employers who believe one of these exceptions applies to their employees should check with their lawyer.

My company already provides short-term disability. Do we have to participate in the program?

Maine employers do have an option to substitute the state program with a private plan, but employers must apply for substitution, the plan must be substantially equivalent to the state program, and the private plan must be approved by the state prior to it taking effect. Applications for private plans will not be accepted until April 1, 2025, meaning all employers currently must participate in, and comply with the requirements of, the state program.

What does my company need to do now?

As soon as possible, all employers must provide employees with notice of the program, through a form available on the program website. This notice will explain that while employees are not eligible to take leave under the program until May 1, 2026, that as of Jan. 1, 2025, employers are required to make payroll deductions.

For employers with 15 or more employees, the contribution is 1% of Maine employees’ wages (with no more than 0.5% being paid by the employee). For employers with fewer than 15 employees, the contribution is 0.5% of wages (of which the entire amount can be deducted from employees’ wages). The size of the employer is calculated by determining the number of employees on payroll in the 12-month period preceding Sept. 30 of each year.

If 15 or more employees are employed, for 20 or more weeks, the employer will be considered to be an employer of 15 or more employees for purposes of determining premium liability. Employers should work with their payroll provider in order to make sure the appropriate deductions are being made from employee paychecks.

In addition to providing the notice to employees, and talking to their payroll provider, employers need to register through the Maine Paid Leave Contributions Portal, accessible through the program website. Registration will permit employers to file quarterly wage reports and remit the premium contributions on a quarterly basis.

What else should my company be considering?

While employees are not currently eligible for leave, employers need to operationally understand how leave will affect operations of the business once it is available to employees. Leave is available for a continuous duration, intermittently, or pursuant to a reduced schedule leave in order to:

bond with a child after birth, the placement of the child for adoption, or foster care with the employee
care for a family member with a serious health condition or who is a covered service member
attend to a qualifying exigency or the death of a family member in active military service
take safe leave
donate an organ.

For purposes of the statute, a family member is broadly defined and includes legal, biological, step, adoptive, foster and de facto family members as well as individuals with whom the employee has a “significant personal bond that is or is like a family relationship,” without regard to a biological or legal relationship.

Additionally, employees will be eligible to apply for leave on the first day of employment. There is no requirement that an employee work for an employer for any pre-set period of time prior to being eligible for the leave.

Accordingly, employers of all sizes need to begin to analyze how leave of up to 12 weeks over the course of a year could affect their operations and consider contingencies related to staffing during those periods.

More information

Find out more about the program here from the Maine Department of Labor.

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