Bill would make more than 30,000 salaried workers in Maine eligible for overtime

Maine is among a handful of states that calculate their salary thresholds above the federal standard of $35,680. Raising overtime standards would group Maine with eight states that have similar laws, from Pennsylvania, where the threshold is about $40,600, to California, where the cutoff for large employers is $62,400.

“We would be ahead of other states, but we wouldn’t be leading the way,” said James Myall, a policy analyst at the left-leaning Maine Center for Economic Policy.

About 30,500 salaried workers would be newly covered under the salary rule by the time it hit the maximum threshold, Myall said. Roughly 8,300 of those employees regularly work more than 40 hours per week, he added.

Click here to read the full story, first published January 28, 2022 in the Portland Press Herald.