New Maine Workplace Laws Change Pay Transparency, Surveillance Notices and Health Care Noncompetes

Several Maine labor laws took effect statewide on July 29, 2026, changing what many employers must disclose to job applicants and current employees, how covered workplace surveillance must be announced and how some health care noncompete agreements are handled.

The changes affect employers, workers, job seekers and health care practitioners. They include a pay-transparency requirement for employers with at least 10 employees, new notice and personal-device protections for employees subject to covered electronic surveillance, and revised rules for certain health care noncompete agreements.

The Maine Department of Labor summarized the changes on July 20. That agency summary explains implementation, while the enacted public laws control the exact requirements. The July 29 effective date is separate from the dates on which individual measures were approved or enacted. For example, LD 54 was approved April 24, 2026, LD 2200 was approved April 15, 2026, LD 1587 was approved March 19, 2026, and LD 61 became law without the governor’s signature on January 11, 2026.

Pay ranges are required for many job postings

Under LD 54, an employer with 10 or more employees must include in a job posting a statement listing the prospective range of pay the employer will offer to a successful applicant.

The statute defines a pay range to include the range the employer anticipates relying on when setting wages, such as an applicable pay scale, a previously determined wage range, the actual range paid to people in equivalent positions or the budgeted amount for the position.

There is a commission-only exception. If the position is compensated solely on commission, the posting must indicate that the compensation is based solely on commission rather than provide a wage or salary range. The law therefore does not require every form of compensation to be expressed as a range.

A current employee may request the range of pay the employer offers for the position the employee holds. Employers must also maintain a record of each position held by an employee and the employee’s pay history in each position during employment and for three years after termination.

Surveillance notices must come before covered monitoring

LD 61 applies to public and private employers and regulates covered employer surveillance conducted through an electronic device or system. An employer may not use covered surveillance unless it notifies the employee before beginning the surveillance.

An employer using covered surveillance must also inform a prospective employee during the employment interview process that it engages in employer surveillance. Current employees must receive written notice at least once during each calendar year.

The law allows an employee to decline an employer’s request to install data-collection or transmission applications on the employee’s personal electronic devices. Maine law also prohibits retaliation against employees who exercise rights under this surveillance law and other labor protections identified by the Department of Labor.

LD 61 limits audiovisual monitoring in an employee’s residence, personal vehicle or personal property when used as employer surveillance, unless the monitoring is required for the employee’s job duties. It does not ban all workplace monitoring. The statute excludes, among other things, security or safety cameras, GPS tracking or other safety devices on employer-owned vehicles operated by employees, and surveillance in settings where personal-care services are expected to be provided.

A violation may carry a fine of $100 to $500 for each violation. Whether a particular practice violates the law depends on the facts and on whether an exclusion or exception applies.

Health care practitioners should review new or renewed agreements

LD 2200 changes Maine’s rules for noncompete agreements involving health care practitioners. It defines a health care practitioner as an individual qualified or licensed under state law to provide health care services in Maine and requires an enforceable agreement to recognize an individual’s right to choose that person’s own health care practitioner.

The law creates a specific exception to the delayed-effective-date rule when the employee is a health care practitioner employed by an entity in which the practitioner does not have an ownership interest. It also preserves a separate exception involving allopathic and osteopathic physicians. The statute retains provisions concerning ownership interests and does not automatically eliminate every noncompete restriction for every health care practitioner.

LD 2200 applies to noncompete agreements entered into or renewed on or after July 29, 2026. It is not retroactive. Health care practitioners should review new or renewed agreements dated on or after that date, and employers should have counsel examine such agreements before using them.

Labor officials have expanded enforcement tools

LD 1587 expands and clarifies the Bureau of Labor Standards’ investigatory and enforcement procedures. During an investigation, the director may examine relevant books and records, interview witnesses, issue subpoenas and require production of records that employers are required by law to keep.

If the director determines that a person or employer violated covered labor laws, the director may issue a notice of violation and order penalties or other remedies. After final administrative and legal appeal rights have been exhausted, ordered payments generally must be made within 30 calendar days. Failure to pay or correct an ongoing violation can trigger an additional civil penalty of up to $1,000 per day in circumstances specified by the statute.

Those powers do not establish that any particular Maine business has violated the new requirements. They give labor officials additional tools to investigate and pursue confirmed violations.

What Maine workers and employers should do now

Job seekers should save postings that omit a required pay range, along with application and interview communications. Current employees who request the pay range for their position should keep a record of the request and the employer’s response.

Workers subject to covered electronic surveillance should retain notices, policy documents, application requests and messages about monitoring. Employees should document whether an employer requested installation of a data-collection or transmission application on a personal device.

Health care practitioners should preserve new or renewed noncompete agreements dated July 29, 2026, or later. Employers should update job-posting templates, annual surveillance notices, record-retention practices and health care employment agreements.

Workers who believe the new requirements were violated should preserve relevant postings, notices, agreements, messages and pay records before seeking assistance from the Maine Department of Labor. The practical next step for employers is a compliance review; for workers, it is documentation of the facts surrounding a disputed practice.

Sources

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