August 28, 2025
New Maine Employment Laws
It’s the time of year that Maine employers have to get up to speed on the new laws that take effect on September 24, 2025. There are 3 employment laws to pay attention to.
EARNED PAID LEAVE LAW
Effective September 24, 2025, the Earned Paid Leave law is amended as follows:
- Employees are entitled to roll over up to 40 hours of accrued but unused earned paid leave (EPL) from the year in which it was earned into the following year of employment.
- The amount of paid leave that the employee is entitled to accrue in that following year of employment (up to the higher of 40 hours or the accrual limit specified by the employer if higher), may not be reduced by the amount of the rolled over EPL. For most employers, an employee’s EPL balance could reach 80 hours (40 rolled over hours plus the new 40-hour accrual).
Prior to this change in the law, guidance published by the Maine Department of Labor had indicated that employers were not required to allow roll over of EPL that was front-loaded to the employee, and EPL earned in a future year could be reduced by the amount of any EPL permitted to be rolled over from the prior year.
We recommend that you review your current EPL policy and adopt this change in the rollover requirements.
PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE LAW
Effective September 24, 2025, the new Paid Family and Medical Leave Law is amended with respect to intermittent leave.
Any leave taken under the Paid Family and Medical Leave law on an intermittent basis may be taken by an employee in increments of not less than one work day, unless a smaller increment is agreed to by the employee and the employer. Any smaller increment, however, cannot be less than one hour.
“Work day” is not defined. We expect that it will be interpreted as the employee’s regular or customary hours worked in a day.
MINIMUM PAY FOR REPORTING TO WORK
Effective September 24, 2025, LD 598, which passed on June 24, 2025, without the signature of Governor Mills, provides a new requirement for call in pay. Public employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement and employers with less than 10 employees are exempt.
If an employee reports to work as required and the employer then cancels or reduces the number of hours in their shift, the employer must pay the employee the lesser of two hours of pay at their regular hourly rate, or the total amount they would have earned for the originally scheduled shift. This does not apply, however, if the employee is not required or is unable to work due to adverse weather conditions, natural disaster or civil emergency, the illness or medical condition of the employee, or a workplace injury of the employee.
This law is intended to address situations where an employee is sent home early, typically for lack of work. If you send an employee home for disciplinary reasons, this minimum pay requirement applies. Many of you will be starting to work on a PFML policy and you may want to add language setting up parameters on intermittent leave that comply with the new law.
If you have questions, please reach out to a member of our team.