Maine Overtime Laws & Calculator

Weekly. Maine sets no daily threshold, so a twelve-hour day owes no premium on its own — those hours go into the week's total like any others, and the count that decides your pay is hours past 40 in a single workweek.

No. Four ten-hour days is 40 hours, and the weekly rule starts past 40 hours, not at them. Day length does not matter in Maine: four tens, five eights and three long shifts all pay the same if the week's total is the same.

No Maine statute sets a double-time rate. Where double time appears on a stub here it comes from a union agreement, a company policy or a holiday practice — worth having in writing, but it is an agreement rather than the law. What the statute requires is time and a half past 40 hours in a workweek, with no daily threshold.

Maine has no seventh-day rule. Those hours count toward the workweek like any others, so a seven-day stretch usually produces overtime through the weekly total instead: seven eight-hour days is 56 hours, of which 16 are past 40.

Yes. 26 M.R.S. § 664(3) bars an employer from requiring more than 40 hours of work in a week unless all hours past 40 are paid at 1½ times the regular hourly rate, and the Maine Department of Labor says this is counted by the workweek, not after eight hours in a day, unless a collective bargaining agreement requires otherwise. For most hourly workers that is the same weekly rule the calculator on this page applies, so the main differences are about who is covered and which jobs are exempt, plus a separate cap on mandatory overtime. Federal coverage under the FLSA depends on the size of the business (for example, an enterprise with at least two employees and at least $500,000 in annual sales or business done) or on the work involving interstate commerce, while the Maine labor department says any business in Maine with one employee or more is covered by state law. Maine's exemption list in § 664(3) is not the same as the federal list in 29 U.S.C. § 213. It includes, for example, the canning, processing, packing, storing or distributing of agricultural produce, meat and fish products and perishable foods, and a driver exemption (§ 664(3)(K)) that applies only to drivers and driver's helpers who are not paid hourly and are subject to 49 U.S.C. § 31502, while the federal exemption in 29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(1), for employees under the Secretary of Transportation's hours-of-service authority, says nothing about how the driver is paid. The Maine labor department tells employers to check both federal and state law on each exemption, because some exemptions allowed under federal law are prohibited or not addressed by state law.

Generally yes, but Maine caps required overtime. Under 26 M.R.S. § 603, an employer may not require an employee to work more than 80 hours of overtime in any consecutive 2-week period, and overtime for this purpose means hours worked past 40 in a calendar week. The limit has exceptions, including work in response to an emergency declared by the Governor, employees who perform essential services for the public, employees of seasonal employers and certain salaried executives (§ 603(3)). A nurse may not be disciplined for refusing to work more than 12 consecutive hours, except in an unforeseen emergent circumstance when overtime is required as a last resort to ensure patient safety, and a nurse mandated to work past 12 hours as the section permits must be allowed at least 10 consecutive hours off afterward (§ 603(5), which has its own exceptions). By comparison, the U.S. Department of Labor says the federal FLSA sets no limit on the hours that employees aged 16 and older may work in a workweek. This limit is separate from how overtime is paid, which is what the calculator on this page covers.

You can file a complaint about overtime owed under 26 M.R.S. § 664(3) with the Maine Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division through its Wage and Hour Complaint Portal. The issues the portal lists include “not paid overtime” and being misclassified as salary exempt from overtime, and it links to an online Wage and Hour Complaint Form. The department says the division will evaluate all complaints it receives but will not investigate or take further action on complaints that do not state a potential violation within its jurisdiction. For questions about Maine’s labor laws, or to speak with a Labor and Safety Inspector, the department lists (207) 623-7900.

Usually, yes. The multiplier is applied to the regular rate, not to your base wage, and the regular rate takes in nondiscretionary bonuses, production and attendance bonuses, and shift differentials for the week they were earned. An overtime hour in a week with a night differential is worth more than base × 1.5. Bonuses that are genuinely discretionary — not promised in advance — stay out of it. The federal rules for building the regular rate are at 29 C.F.R. Part 778 and apply in Maine.

Not by itself. A salary is a way of paying, not an exemption. The white-collar exemptions turn on the work actually performed together with how and how much you are paid, and the duties tests at 29 C.F.R. Part 541 do not include job titles. A salaried employee whose duties fall outside those tests is owed overtime on the same 40-hour week as anyone else.