New hiring laws in Maine for 2027: pay ranges in job ads, surveillance notice in interviews, the $15.70 minimum wage and what employers do next

As of November 2026, Maine changed more about hiring in 2026 than most states. Since July 29, 2026, the general effective date for the 2026 session, employers with 10 or more employees must post a pay range in job ads, employers that monitor workers electronically must say so to candidates during the interview process, the drug testing law has been rewritten, and new non-competes with health care practitioners who do not own part of the employer are barred. Maine Paid Leave benefits began May 1, 2026, and from January 1, 2027 the minimum wage is $15.70 an hour and the overtime-exempt salary floor is $905.79 a week.

Each item below links to the chaptered law or bill record on the Legislature's site, the Legislature's digest of 2026 enacted laws, or the Maine Department of Labor, whose July 2026 briefing lists the Title 26 changes effective July 29, 2026. The standing checklist (unemployment and withholding registration, the Paid Leave portal, W-4ME, new-hire reporting in 7 days) is in our Maine hiring hub; this page is the dated list of what is new.

Which Maine hiring laws changed in 2026, and what changes in 2027?

Maine laws and the federal rules that apply to Maine employers, sorted by date.

What must a Maine job posting include now?

A pay range, if you have 10 or more employees. Public Law 2025, chapter 771 (26 M.R.S. 622-A) requires those employers to include on a job posting "the prospective range of pay" for the successful applicant; for a job paid solely on commission, a statement saying so meets the rule. Every employer, whatever its size, must also tell an employee the pay range for their own position on request and keep a record of each employee's positions and pay history during employment and for three years after it ends. The Department of Labor's briefing says violations carry a civil penalty of $100 to $500 each. Maine's 2019 salary history rule still bars asking about pay history until an offer with all compensation terms is made; the two rules side by side are in Maine pay transparency and the Maine salary history page.

What must Maine employers tell candidates about workplace monitoring?

Public Law 2025, chapter 524, which became law without the Governor's signature on January 11, 2026 and which the Department of Labor lists as effective July 29, 2026, adds 26 M.R.S. 620-A. "Employer surveillance" means monitoring an employee through an electronic device or system, such as a computer, telephone or camera system; cameras used for security or safety and GPS or other safety devices on employer-owned vehicles are excluded. An employer that uses it must:

• "inform a prospective employee during the employment interview process" that it engages in employer surveillance;
• notify each employee before monitoring begins, and give all current employees written notice at least once per calendar year;
• not use audiovisual monitoring in an employee's home, personal vehicle or property unless the job requires it; and
• accept an employee's refusal to install data collection or transmission apps on a personal device.

The section does not apply to monitoring installed in settings where personal care services are provided, fines run from $100 to $500 per violation, and the department has published a poster. The practical fix is a sentence in the interview script and the offer packet for any role that is monitored. The rule is about monitoring employees; recording the interview itself is governed by Maine's one-party consent law, covered in Maine recording consent for interviews.

What changed in Maine's drug testing and non-compete rules?

Public Law 2025, chapter 666 keeps the state approval requirement for every testing program and updates the rest: medical review officers are required, employers may screen saliva with a rapid oral fluid device, breath alcohol tests count as substance use tests, "arbitrary" testing becomes "criteria-based testing" (for example a test a client or work site requires), and testing an employee now needs "reasonable suspicion" based on "specific and articulable facts," according to the Department of Labor. An employer subject to federal testing rules must test its non-federally regulated employees in the same manner. Update your approved policy before you rely on it; the details, including the medical cannabis rule, are in Maine drug testing laws.

Public Law 2025, chapter 718 adds health care practitioners to the workers who may not be asked to sign a non-compete, unless they work for an entity in which they have an ownership interest, joining workers at or below 400% of the federal poverty level and veterinarians. Any enforceable non-compete with a health care practitioner must recognize a patient's right to choose their own practitioner. Screening questions for candidates with older agreements are in Maine non-compete law.

What changed for background checks and enforcement?

• Screening companies. Public Law 2025, chapter 513, which became law on January 11, 2026, requires a business screening service to disseminate only complete and accurate criminal history records, investigate disputed records, correct or delete records that are inaccurate or reflect a sealed or pardoned conviction, and send a notice with each report giving the date the record was collected and warning that it may include sealed records. A violation also has to violate the federal FCRA, and it carries a $1,000 penalty. The same law lets victims of sex trafficking or sexual exploitation move to seal convictions that resulted from it.
• Labor Standards enforcement. Public Law 2025, chapter 568 (26 M.R.S. 54) lets the Bureau of Labor Standards subpoena records and testimony, adds penalties of up to $1,000 a day for not paying a final order or not correcting a violation, authorizes levies, and requires employers to post notices of violation and send them to affected employees.
• State jobs. Public Law 2025, chapter 634 requires state agencies filling classified positions to offer an interview to the spouse of an eligible service member who meets the minimum qualifications, and to retain such spouses first in layoffs among equal competitors.

What do Maine Paid Leave and the 2027 wage changes mean for offers?

Maine Paid Leave pays benefits only for time out of work on or after May 1, 2026, so 2026 hires are joining a program that now pays claims; the notice at hire and the portal registration are in the hiring hub. For 2027 pay, the Department of Labor announced on September 18, 2026 that, from January 1, 2027, the minimum wage rises from $15.10 to $15.70 an hour, the service employee cash wage from $7.55 to $7.85, and the salary threshold for overtime exemption to $905.79 a week ($47,101.08 a year). Recheck offers and job ads for salaried roles close to that line, and remember the duties test still applies. Since January 1, 2026, under 26 M.R.S. 1221-A, employee leasing companies also report unemployment contributions under each client's own account; see employer of record in Maine.

Which federal changes apply to Maine employers in 2026 and 2027?

• Form I-9. USCIS lists the 01/20/25 edition as current and allows the 08/01/23 edition until its 05/31/2027 expiration date; electronic systems had to move to the 05/31/2027 version by July 31, 2026.
• Work permits. The DHS final rule of October 14, 2026 finalizes the October 30, 2025 interim rule ending automatic extensions for EAD renewals in certain categories; see the EAD automatic extension guide.
• E-Verify. Maine has no E-Verify mandate (see E-Verify requirements in Maine), but voluntary users and federal contractors should know that the Status Change Report now flags cases tied to invalidated A12, C08, C09 and C19 EADs, and that the Historical Records Report for cases last updated on or before December 31, 2016 must be downloaded by January 8, 2027.
• Federal contractors. The Labor Department's final rule rescinded the Executive Order 11246 regulations effective October 26, 2026; what remains is in job posting requirements for federal contractors.
• Criminal history. The EEOC rescinded its 2012 arrest and conviction records guidance on October 28, 2026 (EEOC release). Maine's own rule is untouched: 26 M.R.S. 600-A still keeps the question off the initial application and lets the candidate explain, and the Green factors from the 1975 Eighth Circuit case (the nature and gravity of the offense, the time since it and the nature of the job) remain a sound way to decide. See ban the box in Maine and Maine background check laws.

What did not change in Maine?

• No E-Verify requirement for private employers.
• No AI hiring law. The 2026 artificial intelligence law (Public Law 2025, chapter 687) regulates AI in certain mental health services, not hiring decisions.
• Recording interviews still needs only one party's consent under Maine's wiretap statute.
• Ban the box and salary history rules are the same as before, and still apply to employers of any size.

What should Maine employers do before January 1, 2027?

1. Add pay ranges to every Maine job posting if you have 10 or more employees, and set up pay history records for all staff.
2. Add the surveillance notice to interview scripts, offer packets and an annual written notice if you monitor employees electronically.
3. Resubmit or update your drug testing policy for the July 29, 2026 rules before testing.
4. Remove non-competes from offers to health care practitioners who will not own part of the practice.
5. Reprice offers for January 1, 2027: $15.70 an hour, and $905.79 a week for salaried exempt roles.
6. Check Form I-9 editions, EAD dates and any pre-2017 E-Verify records, and remove references to the 2012 EEOC guidance from background check procedures.

What does this mean for staffing agencies in Maine?

The pay range rule covers recruitment done "indirectly through a 3rd party," so ranges belong in the Maine ads an agency runs for a client with 10 or more employees; ask clients for the range at intake. Agencies that screen candidates should expect their background vendors to meet the chapter 513 duties, and health care agencies should strip non-competes from practitioner agreements. Ask clients whether placed workers will be monitored electronically, so the notice reaches candidates during interviews. Agency licensing and temporary nurse agency registration are in our Maine staffing agency guide, and other states' 2027 changes are in new hiring laws for 2027.