Maine Minimum Wage and Salary Increase Effective January 1, 2021

Effective January 1, 2021, Maine’s minimum wage will increase to $12.15 per hour and $6.08 per hour for tipped employees. Additionally, the minimum salary for exempt white collar employees will increase to $700.97 per week, or $36,450 per year. This is only...

Maine Law Alert: 2021 Earned Paid Leave and Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage On January 1, 2021, Maine’s minimum wage will increase to $12.15 per hour. The tipped employee direct wage will increase to $6.08 per hour. Earned Paid Leave Starting on January 1, 2021, employers that have 11 or more employees working in Maine must...

A manager of ours, who is exempt, is taking a half day to attend a social event even though they’ve exhausted all of their paid time off. Can we reduce their salary for that day?

Answer from Kyle, PHR: Not for half day, no. As a general rule, if an exempt employee performs any work during the workweek, they must be paid their full salary. If the employee were taking off one or more full days for this social event, then a deduction from their...

Business has slowed and we’re cutting back the hours of some employees. Do I need to reclassify them as part-time if they’re working fewer than 40 hours per week?

Answer from Laura, SHRM-CP: Not necessarily. It’s up to you to decide how many hours employees need to work in a week to be considered full-time. While we generally recommend that you abide by the standards you’ve set previously so that you’re enforcing your...

How to Figure Retroactive Pay

Retroactive, or retro, pay is money due to an employee for work already performed but paid at a lower rate. Most commonly, it is linked to late performance appraisals, in which the employee received a pay increase that took effect in a prior pay period. Employees who...

We received a wage garnishment for child support that the employee doesn’t want us to follow. What should we do?

Answer from Laura, SHRM-CP: Valid wage garnishments need to be followed regardless of the affected employee’s feelings on the matter. In this case, you should go ahead and follow the instructions from the garnishing agency, withholding and sending them the...