Maine Paid Family Leave Program
Maine's Paid Family Leave program goes into effect January 1, 2026, with payroll contributions beginning January 1, 2025. The program provides eligible workers in the private and public sectors 12 weeks of paid time off available to them for family or medical reasons, including illness, to care for a relative, or for the birth of a child.
Eligibility and Tax Rates
All employers will employees working in Maine are subject to the tax.
- Employers with 15 or fewer employees are exempt from the employer share but must withhold a 0.5% contribution rate from employees.
- The employer can pay for this or deduct it from the employees’ wages. Employers with 15 or more employees are subject to a 1% contribution rate.
- Employers and employees can share the costs, meaning employers will pay 0.5% of the contribution, and employees will pay 0.5%.
Exemptions
- Any employee or employee subject to the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act
- Federal government, including tribal government
- Any public employer and employee subject to a collective bargaining agreement in effect on October 25, 2023, won't be required to make PFML contributions until that agreement expires.
Employers who offer their own paid leave program may apply for an exemption. The ability to apply for exemptions won't start until April 2025. This means all Maine employers that aren’t exempt will have to pay the contributions for at least the first quarter of 2025.
Registration and employer resources
The online system for Maine businesses to register will be coming this winter. Keep an eye out for updates on the agency’s website. In addition, the agency has put together a helpful document with important information for employers, which we recommend reviewing.
Setting up and tracking payroll contributions in QuickBooks
QuickBooks is currently working on adding the new Maine Paid Leave contribution to our payroll systems ahead of the January 1, 2025 start date. We will support the ability to calculate the payroll contribution for each use case whether you have 15 employees or less. As soon as the ability to set up the new Paid Leave contribution is available later in 2024, we will contact all Maine employers using QuickBooks Payroll.
For additional information on the new program, visit the Maine PFL website.
