Yarmouth Payroll Plus, Inc.

09/12/2025

Maine Law Alert

Maine Implements Reporting Time Pay and Updates Earned Paid Leave

Beginning September 24, 2025, the following employment laws take effect.
REPORTING TIME PAY
Employers with 10 or more employees will need to pay nonexempt employees for reporting to work when the employer cancels or reduces the hours they were scheduled to work. In these cases, the employee must be paid the lesser of:
• Two hours of pay at their regular hourly rate of pay
• The total pay for their scheduled shift
Exceptions
An employer doesn’t have to pay if an employee’s hours are canceled or shortened due to any of the following:
• Adverse weather conditions
• A natural disaster
• A civil emergency
• An employee’s illness or medical condition
• An employee’s workplace injury
Employers won’t owe reporting time pay if they made a documented, good faith, and successful attempt to notify the employee not to report to work. If the employee arrives before the employer can reach them, the employer can assign any available duties the employee is physically able to perform—or, if no work is available, send them home and provide reporting time pay.
Action Item:
Review your scheduling and call-in procedures to ensure compliance with this new law.
EARNED PAID LEAVE
Employers with 11 or more employees have to allow employees to accrue up to 40 hours of earned paid leave each benefit year, no matter how many unused hours are carried over. Previously, carryover hours could count against the accrual limit in the new benefit year.
This update means employee leave balances may now exceed 40 hours—for example, 40 hours of accrued leave in the current benefit year plus 40 hours of carryover. However, current regulations still allow employers to cap usage at 40 hours per benefit year. It’s unclear whether Maine’s Department of Labor will update its regulations based on this change.
Action Item:
Update your paid leave policy by September 24, 2025, if it had this level of detail.

This is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, accounting, or tax advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. The information provided here was based on certain federal and/or state statutes and does not encompass all applicable requirements or other regulations that may exist, such as local ordinances or case law.
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11/19/2024

EDIT TO UPDATE from Maine Department of Labor:
The new federal rule that would have increased the salary threshold was recently blocked by court action. Therefore, starting January 1, 2025 the new minimum salary threshold in Maine will be $845.21 per week, or $43,951 per year.

***Federal Law Alert***
NOVEMBER 18, 2024
Federal: DOL’s 2024 Exempt Salary Rule Thrown Out

On November 15, 2024, a federal court in Texas ruled that the Department of Labor had overstepped its authority with the most recent rule increasing the minimum salary for exempt employees. The July 1 increases are void, the additional increase that would have taken effect on January 1, 2025, won’t happen, and the automatic increases that were scheduled to occur every three years are no more.

In short, the whole rule was thrown out and the minimums have reverted to what they were prior to July 1, 2024. This means that most executive, administrative, and professional employees need to be paid at least $684 per week ($35,568 annually), and not the $844 required by the now-defunct 2024 rule. Employees classified under the highly compensated employee exemption need to be paid at least $107,432 per year, as opposed to $132,964.

Action Items
If so inclined, employers can roll back changes they made to comply with the rule in July and halt any plans they had for the second increase in January. However, they can’t retroactively reduce pay or change an employee’s classification.
Employees should be made aware of any changes to their pay or classification before the changes take effect, and in compliance with any applicable state or local laws, which may have specific notice requirements.
Employers should also consider the potential impacts on employee morale and do what they can to mitigate those that may be negative. If nothing else, explaining that changes are due to fickle federal law and the needs of the business will help employees understand that your decisions aren’t arbitrary.

We are unsure at this time if Maine will continue with their anticipated salary threshold which aligned with the DOL's threshold for 1/1/2025. We will update you as soon as we have any information

09/24/2024

Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave Law Updates as of 9/23/2024

04/29/2024

Federal Law Alert
APRIL 29, 2024
Federal EEO-1 Reporting Opens April 30

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that the 2023 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection will open April 30. The deadline to file the report is June 4, 2024.

The EEO-1 Component 1 report is a mandatory filing for private employers with 100 or more employees, and federal contractors and subcontractors that meet certain criteria and have 50 or more employees.

Employers should visit the EEO-1 Component 1 website to file the report, see the latest filing updates, and find additional information like the 2023 Instruction Booklet. There will be a Filer Support Message Center available when reporting opens. And if you just can’t live without our expert content, we’ve created a handy EEO-1 Mini-Guide to answer many of the most common questions about the EEO-1 report.

Changes for 2023 Reporting: Workforce Snapshot Period
Beginning with this reporting cycle, an employer that met the employee threshold for EEO-1 Component 1 reporting purposes at any time during the fourth quarter of the reporting year (October 1 through December 31, 2023) is required to file.

04/03/2024

Yarmouth Payroll will be closed Friday April 5th. We do not have power or internet at this time. We will resume normal office hours on Monday. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Take good care!

Yarmouth Payroll will be closed tomorrow, April 4th, due to the impending storm. We anticipate widespread power/internet outages over multiple days. We will resume normal office hours as soon as possible. We will update this post if we will be closed on Friday as well. Stay safe friends and take good care!

03/27/2024

Question of the Week
MARCH 27, 2024

QUESTION

Do we need to pay summer interns?

ANSWER

Generally, yes, though it depends on who benefits most from their work.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has adopted the “primary beneficiary test” to determine whether a worker is an employee (who must be paid in accordance with federal wage and hour law) or can be classified as an unpaid intern (a non-employee who is exempt from federal wage and hour law). If the worker is the primary beneficiary of the arrangement—as opposed to the employer—they can be classified as an unpaid intern. If the employer is the primary beneficiary, the worker must be classified as an employee and must be paid minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
READ MORE

This Q&A does not constitute legal advice and does not address state or local law.


Yarmouth Payroll Plus Inc
781 Route 1, Yarmouth, ME 04096
207.846.6806
This email is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, accounting, or tax advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. The information provided here was based on certain federal and/or state statutes and does not encompass all applicable requirements or other regulations that may exist, such as local ordinances or case law.
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©2024 Mineral, Inc.

03/25/2024

***Update: Our power has been restored! We are able to operate in a limited capacity and are focusing our efforts on processing payrolls that are time sensitive. Please be patient as we work through the backlog of emails and calls. Three cheers for the lineworkers!!!

Yarmouth Payroll will be closed today as we are without power/internet due to the ice storm. While we have a generator to source power to our building, we cannot operate without internet. Unfortunately, Yarmouth was hit very hard along with many Maine coastal communities. We have widespread outages with trees and lines down all over town. We will keep you updated and appreciate your patience and grace as we work through the challenges that this natural disaster have presented. We are grateful to the line workers who have come from near and far to restore service as quickly as possible. Stay safe and warm today friends 🙏

01/23/2024

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has published a final rule for independent contractor classification under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Beginning on March 11, 2024, the rule will effectively reinstate the longstanding version of the “economic reality” test the DOL previously used. This test uses a multifactor, totality-of-the-circumstances analysis to determine whether a worker is an employee who is economically dependent on the employer for work, or an independent contractor (IC) who is in business for themself.

Although this version of the economic reality test hasn't been used by the DOL for the last few years, many state agencies and courts continued to use it, and the IRS’s test for IC classification is very similar, so most employers likely did not take action to reclassify employees during the test’s brief DOL hiatus. That said, it never hurts to reevaluate your classifications. As a refresher, the economic reality test looks at the following six factors:

-The worker’s opportunity for profit or loss
-The relative investments by the worker and the employer
-The degree of permanence of the work relationship
-The nature and degree of control an employer has over the person’s work
-Whether the work the person does is essential to the employer’s business
-The worker’s skill and initiative
Keep in mind that some states have more stringent tests (e.g., the ABC test in California), and workers in those states will need to pass the state’s test in order to be properly classified as independent contractors.

You can learn more about the DOL test, the IRS test, and state tests on the platform.

01/08/2024

MERIT UPDATE:

Invitation letters and emails with access codes will begin to go out to employers on 1/17.

Businesses with existing retirement plans in place can exempt themselves from the MERIT program when they receive their notices and access codes. You can reference the following article for a list of exemption qualifying reasons and a step-by-step guide to certifying a business's exemption: https://meritsaves.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/17768395934743-Certify-Your-Business-Exemption-From-MERIT

Additionally, a number of businesses will have certified with the State that they already administer a qualified retirement plan - these businesses will be exempted prior to mailings going out, and no additional action will be required on their parts.

Your business may be exempt from MERIT if you offer one of the following company-sponsored retirement plans: 401(a) - including 401(k) 403(a) - qualified annuity plan 403(b) - tax-sheltered annui...

12/20/2023

Update: Our power has been restored and we will resume normal business operations tomorrow. Thank you to the line workers who have come from far and worked diligently to restore our power as quickly as possible. 🙏

We have been without power since 9:15am on Monday and continue to be without power/heat and internet this morning. We are operating at a bare minimum, prioritizing payrolls that need to be processed over general information requests. We thank you for your patience as we prioritize need and please be assured we will respond to your calls or emails as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and grace during this most difficult time. We are doing our very best!

With gratitude,

Jenna and Karen

12/18/2023

We are currently without power and internet. We apologize for the inconvenience and we will update you as soon as we are fully operational. Thank you for your patience and please stay safe out there today!

Jenna and Karen

12/13/2023

Maine Law Alert
DECEMBER 13, 2023
Maine Increases Minimum Wage

On January 1, 2024, the minimum wage in Maine will increase as follows:

Statewide
The minimum wage will increase to $14.15 per hour. The minimum base wage for tipped employees will increase to $7.08 per hour.
The minimum salary threshold for exempt employees will increase to $816.35 per week (which equals $42,450.20 per year).
Also starting on January 1, 2024, to take a tip credit, an employee must make more than $179 per month in tips. This minimum applies in Portland and Rockland as well.

Portland
The minimum wage in Portland will increase to $15 per hour. The minimum base wage for tipped employees will be $7.50 per hour.

Rockland
The minimum wage in Rockland for employers that have 26 or more employees will increase to $15 per hour and the minimum base wage for tipped employees will increase to $7.50 per hour. Smaller employers can pay the state minimum wage and tipped employee base wage.