Maine Employee Handbook Requirements (2026)

Maine's Earned Paid Leave (EPL) law (26 MRSA 637) is unique among state leave laws because it allows employees to use accrued paid leave for any reason. Not just illness. Not just family emergencies. Any reason at all, including vacation, personal days, or simply not wanting to work that day. Employers with 10 or more employees must provide 1 hour of EPL for every 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year.

The September 2025 amendments (LD 55) fundamentally changed how carryover works, and this is where employers are getting tripped up:

• Unlimited carryover. Employees must be allowed to carry over all accrued and unused EPL from one year to the next. Previously, employers could effectively cap the balance through carryover limitations.
• Carryover cannot reduce new accrual. If an employee carries over 10 unused hours, they must still be allowed to accrue at least 40 additional hours in the new year, for a potential total of 50 hours. The carryover does not count against the annual accrual cap.
• No usage cap. Employers may no longer limit the number of accrued EPL hours an employee can use in a given year. Employees must be allowed to use their full accrued balance, regardless of how large it becomes from year-over-year carryover.
• PTO policy ambiguity. Many employers satisfy EPL through their existing PTO policies. Whether the new carryover and accrual provisions apply to PTO policies that technically satisfy EPL requirements is currently unclear. The Maine Department of Labor has issued guidance that does not fully resolve this question.

The practical impact: an employee who carries over leave year after year could accumulate a substantial balance that must be available for use. This is a significant shift from the original law's framework.

The fix: Update your EPL (or PTO) policy to allow unlimited carryover. Remove any annual usage caps. Ensure that carryover balances do not reduce the employee's ability to accrue new EPL. If your PTO policy is designed to satisfy EPL, consult legal counsel on whether the new carryover rules apply to it. Track accrual and carryover balances in your payroll system.

Sources: 26 MRSA 637 (Earned Paid Leave); Bernstein Shur - EPL Amendments; Pierce Atwood - Maine EPL Changes.

Maine's Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program launches May 1, 2026, with premium collection beginning January 1, 2025. The program provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave for qualifying family and medical reasons, funded by a 1% premium on wages.

The premium split depends on employer size:

• Employers with 15+ employees: The 1% premium is split, with no more than 0.5% deducted from employee wages. The employer pays the remainder.
• Employers with fewer than 15 employees: No employer contribution is required, but employees must still pay their 50% share of the premium.

The compliance requirements and penalties are significant:

• Registration is mandatory. All employers must register with the Maine Department of Labor through the PFML portal to determine their liability and begin submitting premiums and wage reports quarterly.
• Employee notice is required. Employers must inform employees about their PFML rights within 30 days of employment and post a workplace notice. Failure to provide notice carries a $50 penalty per employee for the first violation and $150 per employee for subsequent violations.
• Contribution failures are expensive. Employers who fail to submit premiums face an assessment of 1% of annual payroll for each non-compliant year, on top of the premiums already owed. For a company with $2 million in annual payroll, that is a $20,000 penalty per year of non-compliance.
• Retaliation is prohibited. Employers cannot interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of PFML rights, and cannot retaliate against employees for requesting or using leave.

The fix: Register with the PFML portal immediately if you have not already. Set up payroll to withhold and remit premiums quarterly. Provide written PFML notice to all current employees and add it to your onboarding process. Post the required workplace notice. Budget for the employer share if you have 15+ employees.

Sources: Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave; Littler - Maine PFML Final Rules; KMA HR - Maine PFML Guide.

Maine's public health emergency leave law (26 MRSA 875) is not a temporary COVID-era provision. It is a permanent statute that requires employers to grant reasonable and necessary leave for employees affected by any declared extreme public health emergency, current or future.

The law covers employees who cannot work because they are:

• Under public health investigation, supervision, or treatment related to an emergency
• Acting in accordance with a public health emergency order
• In quarantine, isolation, or subject to a control measure
• Directed by their employer to stay home due to exposure concerns
• Needed to provide care for a spouse, domestic partner, parent, or child affected by the emergency

Key details employers miss:

• Leave extends beyond the emergency. The law provides for leave during the emergency and for a "reasonable and necessary" period after the emergency ends, for conditions contracted or exposures that occurred during the emergency. This means the obligation does not end when the declaration is lifted.
• The leave is with or without pay. The law does not mandate paid leave, but it does protect the employee's job. Employers who terminate employees for taking public health emergency leave face retaliation claims.
• The undue hardship defense is available but narrow. An employer is not in violation if the absence would cause undue hardship, including legitimate downsizing needs related to the emergency's impact on operations. But "inconvenience" is not hardship.
• Handbook policies rarely mention it. Because most employers associate this law with COVID and assume it has expired, their handbooks do not include a public health emergency leave policy. The next declared emergency will catch them without written procedures.

The fix: Add a public health emergency leave section to your handbook that references 26 MRSA 875. Include the covered reasons, the job protection guarantee, and the process for requesting leave. You do not need to wait for an emergency to have the policy in place.

Sources: 26 MRSA 875 (Public Health Emergency Leave); Southern Maine Workers Center - Know Your Rights.

Maine's pay equality law (26 MRSA 628) bans employers from asking about salary history until after extending a job offer that includes all compensation terms. The law also bars employers from making inquiries to the applicant's current or former employers about compensation.

The monetary fines are modest: $100 to $500 per violation. But the real risk is bigger than the fines:

• Violations are evidence of discrimination. Even a single violation of the salary history inquiry ban is now evidence of "unlawful employment discrimination" under Maine law. This means a salary history question in an interview can be used against the employer in a subsequent pay discrimination lawsuit.
• The equal pay standard is broad. Maine mandates equal pay for employees performing "comparable work" regardless of sex or race. Differentials are allowed only for seniority, merit, shift differentials, or other bona fide factors. "We based the offer on their prior salary" is not a bona fide factor.
• Voluntary disclosure is permitted but tricky. If an applicant voluntarily discloses salary history after receiving an offer that includes compensation terms, the employer may use it to confirm details. But the disclosure must be unprompted. Any question that could be construed as seeking salary history, even indirectly, is a violation.
• Wage discussion protections. Employees are protected from retaliation for discussing their wages with coworkers. Policies that prohibit or discourage wage discussions violate Maine law.

The fix: Remove all salary history questions from applications, interview guides, and recruiter scripts. Train every person involved in hiring on the prohibition. Make sure your offer letters include complete compensation terms before any salary history discussion occurs. Review your employee handbook for any language that could be read as discouraging wage discussions among employees.

Sources: Ogletree - Maine Salary History Ban; GoCo - Maine Pay Equity Guide; Mercer - Maine Salary History.

Maine's Family Medical Leave law (26 MRSA 843-849) provides up to 10 weeks of unpaid leave in any 2-year period for employees who have worked for the same employer for 12 consecutive months. The coverage threshold is 15 or more employees at a permanent work site.

That site-level threshold is the compliance trap:

• The count is per work site, not company-wide. Unlike federal FMLA (which counts all employees within 75 miles), Maine MFML looks at each permanent work site independently. A company with 100 total employees might have no covered work site if no single location has 15 or more employees.
• Conversely, a small company can be covered. A 20-person company with all employees at one location is fully covered, even though it would not meet the 50-employee threshold for federal FMLA.
• The 2-year leave period is unusual. Most state and federal leave laws use a 12-month leave period. Maine uses a 2-year period, meaning 10 weeks of leave is available over 24 months, not 12. This makes the per-year entitlement effectively 5 weeks, but the calculation period is different from what most HR professionals expect.
• Interaction with new PFML. When Maine's PFML program launches in May 2026, employees will have access to paid leave benefits alongside the existing unpaid MFML job protection. Employers will need to coordinate MFML, PFML, and federal FMLA entitlements, which will run concurrently in many cases.

The new PFML program adds another layer of complexity. Employers with 15+ employees contribute to the PFML premium (1% of wages, no more than 0.5% from employees). The PFML program provides paid benefits while MFML provides job protection. Employers need to understand how these programs layer.

The fix: Count employees at each permanent work site to determine MFML coverage. Use the 2-year measurement period, not 12 months. Begin PFML premium withholding and remittance on schedule. Update your leave policies to explain how MFML, PFML, and FMLA interact. Train managers on the site-level threshold so they do not incorrectly tell employees they are not eligible.

Sources: 26 MRSA 844 (Family Medical Leave); Maine PFML; Pine Tree Legal - Family Medical Leave in Maine.