Executive exemption
Maine minimum wage laws exempt bona fide executive employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. To qualify as an exempt executive employee, an employee must:
- perform primary duties consisting of the management of the enterprise in which employed or of a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof;
- customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other full-time (or equivalent) employees; and
- be paid a salary that, when converted to an annual rate, exceeds 3000 times the State’s minimum hourly wage or the annualized rate established by the United States Department of Labor under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, whichever is higher.
Maine also relies on the regulations related to executive employee exemption set forth pursuant to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. ME Statute 26-663(3)(K); ME Admin. Rules 12-170-15
Administrative exemption
Maine minimum wage laws exempt bona fide administrative employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. To qualify as an exempt administrative employee, an employee must:
- perform primary duties consisting of either:
- performing office or nonmanual work directly related to management policies or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers, or
- performing functions in the administration of a school system, or educational establishment or institution, or of a department or subdivision thereof, in work directly related to the academic instruction or training carried on therein,
- customarily and regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment; and
- be paid a salary that, when converted to an annual rate, exceeds 3000 times the State’s minimum hourly wage or the annualized rate established by the United States Department of Labor under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, whichever is higher.
Maine also relies on the regulations related to administrative employee exemption set forth pursuant to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. ME Statute 26-663(3)(K); ME Admin. Rules 12-170-15
Professional exemption
Maine minimum wage laws exempt bona fide administrative employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. To qualify as an exempt administrative employee, an employee must:
- perform primary duties consisting of performing work:
- requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning,
- as a teacher in the activity of imparting knowledge, or
- requiring invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized field of artistic endeavor, where the performance of such primary duty customarily and regularly includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment.
- be paid a salary that, when converted to an annual rate, exceeds 3000 times the State’s minimum hourly wage or the annualized rate established by the United States Department of Labor under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, whichever is higher.
Maine also relies on the regulations related to professional employee exemptionset forth pursuant to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. ME Statute 26-663(3)(K); ME Admin. Rules 12-170-15
Outside salesman exemption
Maine minimum wage laws do not specifically exempt outside salesmen from it minimum wage and overtime requirements. Outside salesmen may be exempt from Maine’s minimum wage and overtime requirements if they receive part or all of their compensation in the form of commissions and their hours and places of employment are not significantly controlled by their employers. ME Statute 26-663(3)(C).
Computer employee exemption
Maine minimum wage laws do not exempt computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, or other similarly skilled workers from its minimum wage and overtime requirements.
Other minimum wage and overtime exemptions
Maine’s minimum wage law also exempt the following individuals from its minimum wage and overtime requirements:
- individuals employed in agriculture as defined in the Maine Employment Security Law and the Federal Unemployment Insurance Tax Law, except when that individual performs services for or on a farm with over 300,000 laying birds;
- employees whose earnings are derived in whole or in part from sales commissions and whose hours and places of employment are not substantially controlled by the employer;
- taxicab drivers;
- employees who are counselors or junior counselors or counselors-in-training at organized camps licensed under Title 22, section 2495 and those employees of organized camps and similar seasonal recreation programs not requiring such licensure that are operated as or by nonprofit organizations who are under 18 years of age;
- individuals employed in the catching, taking, propagating, harvesting, cultivating or farming of any kind of fish, shellfish, crustacea, sponges, seaweeds or other aquatic forms of animal and vegetable life, or in the first processing, canning or packing such marine products at sea as incident to, or in conjunction with, such fishing operations, including the going to and returning from work and including employment in the loading and unloading when performed by any such employee;
- home workers who are not subject to any supervision or control by any person whomsoever, and who buys raw material and makes and completes any article and sells the same to any person, even though it is made according to specifications and the requirements of some single purchaser;
- members of the family of the employer who reside with and are dependent upon the employer;
- individuals who are sentenced prisoners in actual execution of a term of incarceration imposed in this State or any other jurisdiction for a criminal offense, except a prisoner who is:
- Employed by a private employer;
- Participating in a work release program;
- Employed in a program established under a certification issued by the United States Department of Justice under 18 United States Code, Section 1761;
- Employed while in a supervised community confinement program pursuant to Title 34-A, section 3036-A; or
- Employed while in a community confinement monitoring program pursuant to Title 30-A, section 1659-A.
Overtime only exemptions
Maine’s minimum wage law also exempt the following individuals from its overtime requirements only:
- automobile mechanics, automobile parts clerks, automobile service writers and automobile salespersons as defined in section 663. The interpretation of these terms must be consistent with the interpretation of the same terms under federal overtime law, 29 United States Code, Section 213;
- mariners;
- public employees, except those employed by the executive or judicial branch of the State;
- individuals working in canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:
- agricultural produce;
- meat and fish products; and
- perishable foods.
- individuals employed, directly or indirectly, for or at an egg processing facility that has over 300,000 laying birds must be paid overtime in accordance with this subsection;
- drivers or driver’s helpers who are not paid hourly and are subject to the provisions of 49 United States Code, Section 31502 as amended or to regulations adopted pursuant to that section, who are governed by the applicable provisions of federal law with respect to payment of overtime; and
- public employees employed by the executive or judicial branch of Maine engaged in fire protection activities, as defined in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 United States Code, Section 203(y), or in law enforcement activities, as defined in 29 Code of Federal Regulations, Section 553.211, and who are eligible to have overtime pay calculated and paid in accordance with 29 United States Code, Section 207(k).
