Maine AFL-CIO Opposes Bills to Weaken Paid Family Leave Law

PHOTO: Senate President Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland) and House Speaker Ryan Fecteau speaking out against efforts to weaken and repeal Maine's paid family and medical leave law. Photo courtesy of Maine People's Alliance.

On Wednesday, the Maine AFL-CIO testified against several bills that would repeal or weaken Maine's paid family and medical law. Many of those bills would provide exemptions for specific employers from the law. The bipartisan law, passed in 2023, will begin providing Maine workers with up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave beginning on May 1, 2026. Maine's paid family and medical leave law is expected to benefit over 600,000 workers and their families, which is about 90 percent of the state's workforce. 

"Working people deserve time away from their job in order to care for themselves or a loved one. It is not possible to expect people to be able to do this without being paid," said Maine AFL-CIO Legislative and Political Director Adam Goode. "Life is better for a newborn child if their parents take leave in order to form a critical bond with them and to bring them to the pediatrician for a regular check-up or immunization. The 178,000 older adults who live in Maine are better able to recover from an injury and illness when cared for by family members and for most of us that can happen only if we have wage replacement to do so."

Maine's paid family and medical leave law covers:

• Medical leave to address workers’ own serious health conditions, including pregnancy
• Caregiving leave to allow workers to care for a loved one with a serious health condition
• Parental leave to provide workers the time to bond with a new child
• Safe leave for certain needs when workers or their loved ones experience sexual or domestic violence
• Deployment-related leave to deal with the impact of a loved one’s military deployment