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State labor laws, such as Maine labor law, can augment the rights of workers who are already protected under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Concerning the areas of vacation pay, overtime pay, and minimum wage, Maine wage and hour laws provide more extensive coverage for employees in the state of Maine.

Maine Vacation Pay

There is no law that guarantees paid vacation time to any Maine employee.  Yet, if an employer enters into an agreement with you concerning paid vacation leave, they must abide by that agreement.  If your employment is terminated, the vacation time that you have earned is considered part of your wages.  You should be compensated accordingly in your last paycheck.  Maine vacation pay is earned time that you should expect to be paid for.

Maine Overtime Law

Maine overtime law is similar to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s guidelines: hours worked in excess of 40 for each workweek are compensable at 1.5 times a non-exempt employee’s rate of regular hourly pay.  A workweek is a 7-day, recurring period of 168 hours.  Employers may not average the hours you’ve worked to determine overtime; each workweek is a standalone unit that determines the amount of overtime you should receive.  For instance:

Week A – You work 46 hours
Week B – You are given a day off, and work 32 hours

In this example, you, the Maine employee, are entitled to all 8 hours of overtime pay for the first week, even though a day off was given the next week to make up for it.

Overtime may be required of you, but no more than 80 hours in two consecutive weeks.

Some employee types that are exempt from Maine overtime laws:

Mariners
Some drivers and drivers’ helpers
Those involved in the processing, preserving canning, drying, freezing, marketing, packing for shipment, or storing of agricultural produce, meat or fish products, or perishable foods

Maine Minimum Wage Law

The state of Maine has a minimum wage of .50 an hour, higher than the U.S. minimum wage of .25 an hour.  In cases where employees are covered by Maine labor law, they are entitled to the higher Maine minimum wage.

Tipped employees are also entitled to .50 an hour.  Your tips may factor into this amount, but your employer may only count your tipped wages toward 50% of their minimum wage obligation.  The other 50% must be paid as direct wages, i.e., at least .75 an hour.  In cases where your tips are not enough to cover 50% of the minimum wage requirement, your employer must pay as much as is necessary to bring you up to the state minimum.

If you have been denied overtime, vacation pay, or minimum wage in the past, you may be able to get those wages back.  USOvertimeLawyers.com has resources for Maine employees, including even more information on Maine state overtime law and a network of Maine overtime attorneys who can review your case and determine what back wages you may be owed.

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It is most likely that you have, at one point or another, glanced at a Labor Law poster; whether in your office break room, kitchen, or in various other areas which are accessible to employees.
These are poster generally three feet by two feet.
Have you ever read the actual content of these legal documents?
Have you ever speculated on the reason that every business is required to pos Labor Laws?

Below we discuss various important points about the requirements of Labor
Law postings:
1)
Let’s begin by listing the reason businesses businesses are necessary for businesses.
OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) legally requires every
business in the United States, that has employees, to post employee rights in a conspicuous place. Every state is required to post Federal
employee regulations. Additionally, individual states have their own laws, which are known as state mandated law. These laws must also be posted conspicuously for employees to know be aware of their rights. 

As a business owner or manager, you are exempt from the requirement to post employee regulations ONLY if:
A. You have no employees
B. You have only contract employees or volunteers
C. Your business is family owned.

2)
Below is a limited list of required Federal postings:
-Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law -Federal Minimum Wage as of: 2009–why not 2010? or just say “Most recent Federal Minimum Wage”
-Employment and Reemployment Rights Act
-Employee Polygraph Protection Act -Anti-Discrimination Notice.

3)
State requirements vary from state to state.
If your business
contains 10% or more Spanish (as their native language) speaking
employees and is located in the following states: AZ, CA, FL, GA, NM, NC, NY, TX, consequently, you are required to post employee regulations in
both English and Spanish languages. However, this rule does not apply
to any other languages.

4)

Did you know that The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 (EPPA)
prevents employers from using lie detector tests, either for
pre-employment screening or during employment with certain exemptions? Therefore, employers may not require or request any employee to take a
lie detector test, or discriminate against an employee, or even a job
applicant who refuses to take a test, or for exercising other rights
under the Act. Once again, every employer is required to display the EPPA poster in the workplace
for their employees.

5)

Another interesting fact: an employer is not allowed to discriminate a
person because of his/her age during hiring. (Equal Employment Opportunity Law)

The importance of conspicuous display and employee accessibility to labor law posters cannot be stressed enough.
Knowing your employees’ rights and doing your due diligence as an employer is a vital component of employer-employee relations.

Comprehensive Federal and State Labor Law Posters can viewed at : www.ComplianceAssistance.us

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