“The wage gap remains a reality we must confront,” Maine Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman said on Thursday’s National Equal Pay Day. The designation represents how far into the year women in the U.S. just have worked in 2026 to earn what men made in 2025.
Maine policy makers and women's rights advocates marked Thursday’s National Equal Pay Day by shining a light on the state's lingering gender wage gap. The designation represents how far into the year women must have worked in 2026 to earn what men made in 2025.
Nationally, female full-time employees age 16 and over earn 83 cents for every dollar paid to men, U.S. Census data show. The gap is more pronounced among racial minorities.
To remedy the situation in Maine, the state is expanding pathways into high-wage careers through pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs in construction and other occupations, helping ensure that anyone with the skills and opportunity to succeed can do so, according to Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman.
"The wage gap remains a reality we must confront," she said.
U.S. Census data show that the difference between median earnings for men and women in Maine who worked full-time, year-round in 2024 was $8,800. Men earned a median of $65,100, while women earned $56,300.
Nationally in 2024, the average differences in median earnings between white, non-Hispanic or Latino men and women of color were $31,800 for American Indian and Alaska Native women; $26,300 for African-American women; and $2,200 for Asian women.
'More work to do'
Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate seat held by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, proclaimed Thursday Equal Pay Day in Maine “to remind us all that we have more work to do to ensure Maine women receive equal pay for equal work."
Destie Hohman Sprague, executive director of the Maine Women's Lobby, called Equal Pay Day “an important reminder that while our laws protecting equal pay are strong, our next efforts to achieve equal pay must focus on improving the systems that keep women's industries and women's work underpaid and undervalued.
She also noted that closing wage gaps in female-dominated fields such as child care and direct care, compensating unpaid care via paid family and medical leave, and strengthening discrimination enforcement at the Maine Department of Labor and the Maine Human Rights Commission are all essential to ensuring fair pay.
Maine's Equal Pay Law, in place since 1949, requires that employees be paid the same wages as employees of the opposite sex for work of comparable skill, effort and responsibility.
