Not only will Maine’s new minimum wage law have an impact on hourly pay rates, it will also affect some workers’ overtime pay.
Under a recently approved ballot item, Maine’s hourly minimum will rise to $9 an hour next month. And, because the state’s rules on who should get time-and-a-half pay for working overtime are tied to its minimum wage, when the new minimum kicks in, most workers who earn $27,000 a year or less will qualify for overtime.
Right now, the cutoff is significantly lower. And, if nothing changes, by the time Maine’s minimum wage rises to $12 an hour in 2020, workers earning as much as $36,000 dollars a year will qualify for overtime pay.
Adding to the confusion is a new federal overtime rule that was supposed to go into effect this month. But a federal judge in Texas put that rule on hold.
Maine Department of Labor spokeswoman Julie Rabinowitz says employers and employees are being “yo-yo’d.”
“This week I had to be paid $48,000 to be exempt. Then the next week I didn’t. Now I have to be $27,000 to be exempt. And then, depending on what happens with the Legislature, they may decide to change that,” she says.
Rabinowitz says many employers in Maine may have adjusted pay practices already, anticipating the federal rule that’s now in limbo.
