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132nd MAINE LEGISLATURE
FIRST REGULAR SESSION-2025
Legislative Document No. 898S.P. 387 In Senate, March 11, 2025
An Act to Support Rural Workforce Recruitment by Allowing Pay
Differentials Based on Work Site Location and Employee
Experience and Credentials Under the Maine Equal Pay Law
Received by the Secretary of the Senate on March 5, 2025. Referred to the Committee on
Labor pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator STEWART of Aroostook.
Cosponsored by Senator: BEEBE-CENTER of Knox, Representative: BUNKER of
Farmington. Page 1 - 132LR1637(01)
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2 as amended by PL 2023, c. 266, ยง1, is further
3 amended to read:
4 An employer may not discriminate between employees in the same establishment on
5 the basis of sex by paying wages to any employee in any occupation in this State at a rate
6 less than the rate at which the employer pays any employee of the opposite sex for
7 comparable work on jobs that have comparable requirements relating to skill, effort and
8 responsibility. An employer may not discriminate between employees in the same
9 establishment on the basis of race by paying wages to any employee in any occupation in
10 this State at a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays any employee of another
11 race for comparable work on jobs that have comparable requirements relating to skill, effort
12 and responsibility. Differentials This section does not apply to differentials that do not
13 discriminate on the basis of sex or race and that are paid to an employee pursuant to
14 established seniority systems or merit increase systems or; pursuant to a difference in the
15 shift or time of the day worked that do not discriminate on the basis of sex or race are not
16 within the prohibitions in this section; pursuant to the geographic location of the employee's
17 work site; or pursuant to an employee's experience or credentials. An employer may not
18 discharge or discriminate against any employee by reason of any action taken by such
19 employee to invoke or assist in any manner the enforcement of this section. An employer
20 may not prohibit an employee from disclosing the employee's own wages or from inquiring
21 about or disclosing another employee's wages if the purpose of the disclosure or inquiry is
22 to enforce the rights granted by this section. Nothing in this This section creates does not
23 create an obligation to disclose wages.
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25 This bill allows differentials in pay based on the geographic location of an employee's
26 work site and an employee's experience or credentials.
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