FAQ
FAQ
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Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave

Overview

Starting May 1, 2026, Maine introduces its Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program, providing paid leave and job protection for qualifying employees.

What's new: Maine employees can receive paid benefits and job protection for various qualifying family and medical leave reasons, including parental leave, medical leave, family caregiving, military exigency, and safe leave (leave related to abuse or violence).

For detailed legislative requirements, see our Legislative Guidance.

How to Use

Throughout this guidance, look for these labels to quickly identify what actions may be needed:

Automatic: System handles this automatically, no action needed

Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere

Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform

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Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management

How AbsenceSoft Manages Maine Paid Leave

AbsenceSoft uses two separate policies that work together to provide Maine PFML benefits:

Policy Name

Policy Code

Policy Type

Purpose

Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave

ME-PFML

Paid Leave

Provides wage replacement during qualifying leave

Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave - Job Protection

ME-PFML-JP

Job Protection

Protects employee's position during leave (120+ days of employment required)

Configuration Note: These policies run concurrently and are automatically applied to new qualifying cases starting May 1, 2026.

Administration Options

Maine PFML can be administered through:

  • State Plan (default) — the Maine Department of Labor / Aflac as claims administrator

  • Private Plans (fully or self-insured) requiring custom policies

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Best Practice: Private fully and self-insured plans should disable the core policies and create custom policies to track separately.

Employer Coverage Requirements

Excluded Employers

All Maine employers are covered except:

  • Federal government

  • Tribal nations

Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy applies to all Maine employees by default.

Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for employees of excluded employers.

Employee Eligibility

Earnings Requirements

Employees must have earned at least six times the state average weekly wage (SAWW), paid in Maine during the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the first day of the benefit year.

Manual Action Required: Override eligibility to ineligible for employees who have not met this earnings requirement based on the state’s determination for ineligibility.

Eligibility Exceptions

Excluded Employees

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for excluded employees who have not opted into the program.

Qualifying Family Members

Special Family Relationship Requirements

Domestic Partner's Parent:

Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft does not have this relationship available. Users should select "Parent In Law" in place of this relationship for qualifying absence reasons.

Leave Entitlements and Duration

Entitlement Overview

All absence reasons available in this policy draw from a single shared 12-week entitlement bank per 12 month Sunday Forward benefit period. Unlike some other state programs, Maine does not provide separate or stacked entitlements by leave type.

Automatic: AbsenceSoft automatically calculates entitlement based on the above overview when using core policies.

How Leave Can Be Taken

Maine PFML may be taken intermittently. The default minimum increment is 8 hours; however, employers may approve increments as small as 1 hour at their discretion. Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Manual Action Required: Track intermittent leave based on the state’s decision and deny if minimum thresholds are not met.

Elimination Period

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Manual Action Required: The 7-day elimination period applies only to Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave (ME-PFML) policy employee health condition and pregnancy absence reasons and should be tracked by denying the waiting period according to the state’s guidelines and ensure benefits do not begin until the elimination period is satisfied.

  • The Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave - Job Protection (ME-PFML-JP) policy does not have an elimination period. Policy decisions should be made according to the state’s guidelines.

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Best Practice: Document elimination period tracking in case notes, including:

  • Start date of elimination period

  • End date of elimination period (day 7)

  • First day benefits are payable

  • Policy decisions should be made according to the state’s guidelines.

Required Paperwork

Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft provides core paperwork to advise employees of their benefits. This is not required by law. AbsenceSoft provides the paperwork as a courtesy to help employees learn where to file and the benefits available under the law. Paperwork is configured to be sent with the Employee Eligibility packet.

Manual Action Required: Customers with customized communications may need to adjust their configurations to include this paperwork. Those with private plans will need to complete the Private Plans section of the form to provide employee insight on where to file their claim.

  • Maine PFML certification and claim forms are submitted directly through the Maine Paid Leave portal (administered by Aflac). Certifications will not be available in the AbsenceSoft platform.

Platform Workflow & Required Actions

Identifying Qualifying Cases

Automatic: The platform automatically identifies qualifying cases starting May 1, 2026 based on:

  • Work State = Maine

  • Qualifying absence reason

  • Employee eligibility criteria met

  • Earnings requirements met

Adding Maine PFML Policies

Automatic: Both policies are automatically added to new cases with qualifying absence reasons starting on or after May 1, 2026:

  1. Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave

  2. Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave - Job Protection

Manual Action Required: For cases with excluded employees(exemptions), manually add, remove, or override eligibility for policies as needed.

Managing In-Flight Cases

Cases Spanning May 1, 2026

For leaves that began before but continue on or after May 1, 2026, manual intervention is required.

Manual Action Required: Review all active Maine cases to identify those that:

  1. Were open before May 1, 2026

  2. Continue on or after May 1, 2026

  3. Meet qualifying criteria for Maine PFML

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Best Practice: Proactively communicate with employees about their new benefit eligibility. Many may not be aware.

Tracking Required: Create a list of all potentially eligible in-flight cases before May 1, 2026 to ensure none are missed.

Instructions for adding policies to existing cases (Effective May 1, 2026)

For cases that are open and span May 1, 2026:

Manual Action Required:

  1. Manually add the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave policy (if applicable/eligibility criteria are met)

  2. Manually add the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave - Job Protection policy (if applicable/eligibility criteria are met)

  3. Both policies should automatically start on (or after) May 1, 2026

Automatic: Both policies are configured to start on or after May 1, 2026 when manually added to qualifying cases that start before May 1, 2026.

Documentation Requirements

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Best Practice: Document in case notes:

  • "Maine PFML added for in-flight case effective 05/01/2026"

Need Help?

For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.