Payroll and Benefits Guide United States – Maine

Employer

Employer Payroll Contributions

Employee

Employee Payroll Contributions

Employee

Employee Income Tax

General

The State Minimum Wage Law sets the Minimum Wage in Maine at 13.80 USD.

There are also other minimum requirements:

Minimum Cash wage (tipped employee)                                6.90 USD

Maximum Cash wage (tipped employee)                                6.90 USD

Payroll Cycle

In general, employees in Maine are paid semi-monthly, with payments made twice a month on set dates as stipulated in the contract. The payment cannot exceed a 16 day gap.

13th Salary

There is no legislation for 13^th-month payments in Maine.

General

In Maine, the working week is a maximum of 40 hours per week, 8 hours per day.

Overtime

Maine adheres to the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA), and work in excess of 40 hours per week is considered overtime and paid at the rate of 150% of the regular pay. If employees are scheduled to work on weekends or rest days, no additional payment is required. However, should an employer request an employee to work in exceptional circumstances on these days, then overtime is paid at the rate of 150% of the regular pay.

Working Week

Monday-Friday

Paid Time Off

Maine does not have any state statute governing the amount and payment of vacation time; however, it is common for employers to decide whether to offer paid or unpaid vacation leave.  This must comply with employment law and must be stipulated in the Collective Bargaining Agreements.

Public Holidays

There are 12 official holidays, however private employers are not required to provide either time off or overtime pay on these days.

Sick Days

It is common for an employer to follow the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for certain family and medical reasons (maternity leave, serious illnesses or if the employee needs to care for a spouse or child).

Employees are eligible for FMLA if they have worked for their employer for at least one year, completed a minimum of 1,250 hours over the past year, and worked at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

FMLA eligible employees are entitled to:

• 12 working weeks of leave in any one year for a child’s birth and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth.
• Leave for the adoption or foster care of a child and care for the newly placed child within one year of placement.
• Care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a severe health condition.
• Leave in the event of a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of their job.
• Any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty.”

Or

• 26 working weeks of leave during a single one-year period to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the service member’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave).

In Maine, for employees with 120 days of service, employers must provide one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours of paid sick leave a year.

In addition, there is the Maine Family Medical Leave Requirements Act (MFMLRA) which requires employers (with 15 or more employees and employees with at least 12 months of service) to provide their employees with ten weeks of unpaid family medical leave in a period of any two years. Employees must give adequate notice before the leave dates (at least 30 days), and the employee may use the leave for:

• The employee’s own serious health condition
• The birth of the employee’s child or the employee’s domestic partner’s child
• The placement of a child 16 years old or younger with the employee or the employee’s domestic partner for adoption
• The serious health condition of the employee’s child, domestic partner’s child, parent, domestic partner, sibling, or spouse
• The employee’s organ donation
• The death or serious health condition resulting from the active duty of the employee’s spouse, domestic partner, parent, sibling, or child who was a member of the military.

Maternity Leave

See Sick Leave above.

Paternity Leave

See Sick Leave above.

Parental Leave

See Sick Leave above.

Other Leave

• Regarding jury service, Maine law states that all employers must provide their full-time employees job-protected but unpaid time off from work to perform their duty as jurors or as a witness in a case, responding to a subpoena: or acting as a plaintiff or defendant in the courts. Employees must provide a copy of the jury summons to the employer as evidence of requirement.
  In addition to the federal law USERRA, Maine law provides protection against discrimination for members of U.S. armed forces, reserves, National Guard, commissioned corps of the Public Health Service, and any other category of persons designated by the president in a time of war or emergency.
  In addition, in Maine, members of the Maine National Guard are entitled to:
  • Reimbursement of the cost of privately purchased or employer-provided health insurance if the insurance policy was in force before the employee was ordered to perform active state service.
  • Unpaid leave to attend drills, annual muster, or perform active service.
  • unpaid leave up to 10 days to attend Maine National Guard training camp.
  • Three days leave after release from duty, recovery from disease or injury resulting from military duty.
  • 30 days of military leave.
  Employers are required to allow rest periods for employees returning from military leave, based on the time spent on military duty as below:
  Length of Military Service                                                    Length of Rest 
  Three or fewer days of military service                             24 hours
  3-15 days of military service                                               48 hours
  15-30 days of military service                                             72 hours
  30-180 days of military service                                           Two weeks
  180 days or more                                                                  90 days

  There is also Family Military Leave in Maine, which requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide up to 15 days of unpaid leave.

VISA

Foreign nationals without permanent resident status or a work visa are not permitted to work in the United States. An employer seeking to hire a foreign national may file a petition with the United States Department of Homeland Security/ United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) for an employment visa on behalf of the prospective employee.

If the petition is approved, the prospective employee must obtain a “visa stamp” from a United States embassy or consulate (Canadian citizens are exempt from this requirement).  To get a temporary U.S. work visa, an employer must file a petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). An approved petition must be part of the visa request; the types of visas include:

• H-1B – for applicants with a college degree hired to do specialised work. The visa is valid for three years and can be extended for an additional three years. The visa is connected to the employer that filed the petition. If there is a change of employer, the new employer must repeat the process. There are 65,000 H-1B visas available each year.
• H-1B1 – for applicants with a college degree from Chile and Singapore. The US government grants up to 1,400 visas to Chilean citizens and 5,400 from Singapore each year.
• H-2A – for temporary or seasonal agriculture work. It is limited to citizens of qualified countries. Usually valid for up to 1 year and can be extended to a maximum of 3 years.
• H-2B – for temporary non-agricultural work. These visas are limited to citizens of qualified countries. Usually valid for up to 1 year and can be extended to a maximum of 3 years.
• L – for intercompany transfers (people transferred from a foreign company to a US branch of the company.) The applicant must have been employed at the company for a year before the transfer and work in a managerial level position or higher with specialised knowledge.
• 0 – for people with extraordinary ability in science, arts, education, business, or athletics.

The standard procedure is to obtain a short-term work visa and then apply for an immigrant visa after the employee has started working in the United States.

For those seeking employment-based immigrant visas:

• E-1 – Highest priority employment for those with extraordinary ability in science, arts, education, business, and athletics.
• E-2 – for those with advanced degrees or exceptional ability.
• E-3 – for skilled workers and professionals, as well as unskilled workers.
• E-4 – Members of certain immigrant groups.
• E-5 – Immigrant investors in US companies (substantial investment)

Alternatively, an employer may sponsor a potential employee’s application for permanent resident status, referred to as a “green card,” if the employee can establish that the potential employee is a multinational executive/manager transferee, has unique skills, or has been offered a job in the United States. The employer must have been unable to recruit a U.S. worker who meets the position’s minimum requirements.

All employers are obligated to verify that all individuals they employ are authorised to work in the United States.

General

Maine has a minimum flat sales tax rate of 5.50 USD.