AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine’s minimum wage is going up from $11 to $12 per hour effective New Year’s Day, giving a wage boost to thousands of workers in the state.
It marks the fourth annual increase in Maine under a ballot measure approved in 2016 when the state’s minimum was $7.50 an hour. State lawmakers subsequently changed the law to allow restaurants to continue paying tipped workers a lower hourly wag
About 8% of Maine’s 679,000 workers earned at or below minimum wage in 2018, according to available state labor data.
Federal labor rules on overtime eligibility also became effective on Jan. 1, lifting the minimum salary for exemption from $23,660 to $35,568 per year for a full-time employee.
Maine’s minimum salary for exemption to overtime eligibility rises from $33,000 to $36,000 per year. That’s based on state minimum wage.
Maine Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman said her department estimates 1,600 Maine workers will be newly eligible for overtime pay protection.
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