The Maine pay transparency law combines three rules: employers cannot ask job candidates about their salary history, employers with 10 or more employees must include a pay range in every job posting, and any employer, regardless of size, must tell a current employee the pay range for the position they hold if the employee asks. Violations carry fines of $100 to $500 per offense.
The Salary History Ban
Since September 2019, Maine employers have been prohibited from asking a job candidate about past compensation. The ban covers direct questions to the applicant and inquiries made to their current or former employers. An employer may ask about or confirm salary history only after making a job offer that spells out all terms of compensation.1Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 26 – 628-A Compensation History Inquiry Prohibited
There is one narrow exception. If a separate federal or state law specifically requires verifying compensation history for a particular type of job, the ban does not apply to that inquiry.1Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 26 – 628-A Compensation History Inquiry Prohibited Outside that scenario, salary history questions are off-limits until a complete offer is on the table. The rule applies to all employers, not just large ones.
Candidates volunteer their old salary all the time. Even when that happens, an employer cannot use the information as the basis for the new offer before the offer is made.
Pay Range in Job Postings
Employers with 10 or more employees must list the prospective pay range in any job posting. The burden is on the employer to include the range upfront; applicants should not have to ask.2Maine State Legislature. An Act to Require Employers to Disclose Pay Ranges and Maintain Records of Employees Pay Histories
The statute refers to “the prospective range of pay” and does not spell out whether that must include bonuses, commissions, or benefits. Employers whose roles depend heavily on variable pay should think about how to present a range that is honest and useful without overpromising. Generic phrases like “competitive salary” do not satisfy the requirement.
Pay Range Disclosure to Current Employees
The 10-employee threshold applies only to the posting requirement. A separate provision covers employers of every size: when a current employee asks, the employer must tell that employee the pay range for the position they hold.2Maine State Legislature. An Act to Require Employers to Disclose Pay Ranges and Maintain Records of Employees Pay Histories
So a five-person business that never posts publicly still needs a documented range for each role and a consistent answer when a worker asks. Inconsistent answers to the same question from different employees is itself a compliance problem.
Recordkeeping Obligations
Employers must keep a record of each position an employee has held and the pay history for each position. Records must be retained for the entire time the person works for the employer, plus three years after employment ends.2Maine State Legislature. An Act to Require Employers to Disclose Pay Ranges and Maintain Records of Employees Pay Histories
The retention period matters because it creates a paper trail. If payroll records show an employee was consistently paid below the range the employer disclosed, the records themselves will surface the discrepancy. Payroll software often handles this, but confirm your system holds the data long enough after separation.
Protection for Wage Discussions
Maine law prohibits employers from firing, threatening, blacklisting, or otherwise retaliating against an employee for discussing wages with coworkers or anyone else, including the employer’s own management.3Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 26 – 644 Prohibition Against Discrimination and Retaliation
The protection is broad. It covers formal complaints and everyday conversations: asking a coworker what they earn, sharing your own salary, questioning why two people in the same role are paid differently. Policies that discourage wage discussions, whether written in a handbook or communicated informally, are themselves violations, even if no one has been disciplined under them yet. Employers who have such language should remove it.
Fines and Enforcement
Violations of the salary history ban or the pay range disclosure requirements carry a fine of $100 to $500 per offense.4Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 26 – 626-A Penalties Each incident counts separately: each posting that omits a range, each prohibited salary history question, each refusal to give an employee the pay range for their role. For a company running many postings, the totals add up.
The Maine Department of Labor investigates complaints and imposes the penalties. A pattern of violations also invites closer regulatory scrutiny of the employer’s broader compensation practices.
What Employers Should Do
Compliance usually breaks down in the everyday details rather than the big-picture rules. A hiring manager casually asks “what are you making now?” on a phone screen. A recruiter reuses last year’s job posting template that has no pay range. Building simple systems prevents both.
- Audit every active job posting. If you have 10 or more employees, confirm each listing includes a pay range in specific numbers.
- Train everyone involved in hiring. Interviewers, recruiters, and HR staff need to know salary history questions are off-limits until a full offer has been made. Practice what to do when a candidate volunteers the information anyway.
- Document a pay range for every role and keep it current, so the answer is ready and consistent when a current employee asks.
- Track each employee’s position history and compensation for the length of employment plus three years, and verify your payroll system retains data that long after someone leaves.
- Review your handbook, offer letters, and informal practices for anything that discourages employees from discussing pay. Remove it.
How Workers Can Use These Rights
For job seekers, the posting requirement means you can see whether a role pays enough before you invest time applying. For current employees, the right to ask for your role’s pay range is a way to spot disparities. If the range for your position is $55,000 to $70,000 and you earn $48,000, that gap deserves an explanation. You do not have to file a complaint to raise the question; often a conversation with your manager is enough. Because retaliation for asking or discussing wages is illegal, you are protected when you do.3Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 26 – 644 Prohibition Against Discrimination and Retaliation
Workers who believe an employer has violated any of these requirements can file a complaint with the Maine Department of Labor. The pay transparency statute does not set a specific filing deadline, but related discrimination claims under the Maine Human Rights Act must be filed within 300 days. Filing sooner preserves more options and makes the facts easier to document.