AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s business community has lingering questions over a new paid family and medical leave program with the official rollout roughly a year away.
The unknowns relate to key parts of the law passed this year by the Democratic-led Legislature, including the maximum benefit that a worker could receive and how employers could intervene if they feel employees make questionable requests for time away from work.
Concerns and questions over the law arose Tuesday morning during a Zoom call hosted by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, which opposed the bill creating the program and shared some of the same concerns as Gov. Janet Mills, who was skeptical of the idea at first but signed off in July after the sponsors made various tweaks.
More than 100 business participants were on the roughly 60-minute call, a sign of the vast amount of attention given to the sweeping new program. About a dozen states offer paid leave programs separate from federal benefits. Maine is the last state in New England to adopt one, though New Hampshire’s is a small and voluntary program.
Plenty of time remains until Maine’s program launches. Employees and employers start making payroll tax contributions to the paid leave fund on Jan. 1, 2025. Benefits will be distributed to qualifying workers starting May 1, 2026. The two officials who handled Tuesday’s questions — Maine State Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Peter Gore and Verrill attorney Tawny Alvarez — noted that upcoming rules could clear up many uncertainties.
The Maine Department of Labor is scheduled to begin rulemaking for the law in January. It will accept public feedback at that time. Neither the department nor the two champions of the law — Assistant Senate Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, and Assistant House Majority Leader Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston — responded to requests for comment.
Several participants asked how businesses could challenge paid leave requests they feel are invalid during Tuesday’s call. One business official brought up whether an employer would have to retain a worker who abandons the job without any communication to their boss only to then come back up to 90 days later and say they actually wanted to apply for paid leave.
Gore said the law creating up to 12 weeks of paid leave includes no language saying employers can deny requests and that business interests mentioned that to lawmakers earlier this year.
“There’s no mechanism to challenge the leave [request],” Gore said, though he added most employers trust their workers.
The program is funded through a maximum 1 percent payroll tax split between a worker and employer, though the law exempts companies with fewer than 15 employees from contributing their portion.
Employees qualifying for leave must have been employed at their workplace for at least 120 days and give “reasonable notice” to their supervisor of an intent to take leave. Employers cannot retaliate against employees who make paid leave requests, but firms with fewer than 15 workers can apply for an “undue hardship” exemption.
One participant asked about how employers could challenge requests based on whom workers say they will care for. Republicans shared concerns about this during legislative debates.
The law is open-ended on this, saying employees can take paid leave to care for parents and children along with “de facto” relatives and anyone else sharing “a significant personal bond.”
Gore said while how to challenge “affinity relationship” claims is still unknown, the state intends to narrow this provision in rulemaking so a worker “could only choose one person in an affinity relationship and not 10.”
The law caps the 12 weeks of paid leave at Maine’s average weekly wage, which is currently just over $1,100. Until reaching a maximum, workers will get paid at a rate of 90 percent of their average weekly wage if less than half of the state’s average and a rate of 66 percent for pay that is more than half of the state’s average. Part-time and full-time workers must contribute more than six times the state’s average weekly wage to become eligible for leave.
Employees could take leave for several reasons, such as the birth, adoption or fostering of a child, supporting a sick or dying loved one, recovering from surgery and managing safety needs as domestic violence victims.
Alvarez and Gore noted the state’s average weekly wage changes each July and will thus switch again by 2026.
While the 12-week cap is in place for a calendar year, Alvarez said the statute does not currently prevent a person from taking medical leave immediately followed by family leave if having documentation showing the medical leave was used during pregnancy or recovery from giving birth.
Alvarez concluded it could raise questions over whether a worker could take up to 24 weeks of leave under the post-pregnancy scenario.