Applications Open for Maine’s Paid Family Leave Program, Benefits Start May 1

Applications for Maine’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) Program opened Monday, allowing Mainers to take up to twelve weeks of paid leave to care for a sick family member, as well as to bond with a newborn baby or newly adopted child.

Also eligible for leave under the program are those who are experiencing a serious health condition and are rendered unable to work for an extended period, and anyone serving as a caregiver for someone who meets the other conditions.

Mainers began paying into the program on January 1, 2025, more than a year in advance of the program becoming available.

Enacted last year as part of a spending bill, it has imposed a one percent payroll tax on most working Mainers and their employers, benefits not scheduled to begin until May 1, 2026.

Employers who choose not to participate in the state program are required to adopt a qualifying private plan in its place.

The one-percent premium in most cases split between the employer and employee, each contributing half to the cost of the program.

Click Here for More Information About the PFML Program

Although lawmakers considered a number of amendments to the program during their previous legislative session, including the possibility of a full repeal, the PFML program has largely remained the same since it was signed into law.

This past summer, however, Gov. Janet Mills (D) finalized a measure adding new penalties and enforcement measures to the program.

The bill also established a Bureau of Paid Family and Medical Leave within the Maine Department of Labor (MDOL) to administer the program.

[RELATED: Janet Mills Signs New Penalties into Law for Noncompliance with Maine’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Program]

Under the new law, employers who are out of compliance with a substitution agreement will be required to pay a fine equal to the amount of premiums that would have otherwise contributed, as well as a penalty worth one percent of the employer’s total payroll for the period in which their policy had lapsed.

The Commissioner of Labor will also be tasked with administering the program through the Bureau of Paid Family and Medical Leave, for which a list of enumerated fines, penalties and “other actions” could be taken if they are deemed “necessary or suitable.”

Additionally, this bill clarified that “intermittent leave” of less than one work day may not be taken unless both the employee and employer agree to it.

Lawmakers in the Senate voted along strict partisan lines in support of the measure. The House then followed suit shortly thereafter, sending the bill to the governor’s desk, where Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed it into law in June.