Maine pay range rules for remote job postings

Do employers need to include wage or salary ranges in job postings for remote roles in Maine

Yes, when the posting is for a position in Maine and the employer has 10 or more employees, the posting must include a wage range. Maine’s pay-transparency law also covers electronic postings, and commission-only jobs must disclose that compensation is based solely on commission.

The part people get wrong is the location test. A remote job is not exempt just because the work happens off-site. If the posting is for a Maine position, the wage-range rule applies the same way it does for an on-site Maine job. The law’s wording focuses on the posting and the position in the state, not on whether the work is performed from a home office.

Maine’s enacted pay-transparency law, Public Law 2025, chapter 771, says an employer with 10 or more employees must ensure that a posting includes the prospective range of pay the employer will offer to a successful applicant. The same law defines “posting” to include electronic postings and third-party recruiting. That matters for remote roles because remote jobs are often posted online and shared widely.

The wage range must be a real range the employer expects to rely on when setting pay for the role. The earlier bill language in Maine also described the range as a good-faith estimate, and the enacted law defines the range of pay as the range the employer anticipates relying on in setting wages. A placeholder range is not what the statute describes.

Commission-only roles get a different treatment. If the position is compensated solely on commission, the posting must say that plainly instead of listing a normal wage range. That is the statutory exception, and it is narrow. A base-plus-commission role is not the same thing as commission-only, so the posting still needs the pay-range statement unless another rule clearly applies.

The law applies to employers with 10 or more employees. Smaller employers are outside that specific posting requirement. That threshold is part of the rule, so the first compliance check for a remote posting in Maine is simple: count employees, then decide whether the position is a Maine posting. If both conditions are met, include the range before the job goes live.

The inconvenience is that remote hiring can cross state lines, and the employer’s home state is not the only thing that matters. A company in another state can still trigger Maine’s rule if it is posting for a Maine position. A company can also have multiple versions of the same remote role, one for Maine and one for other states, and the Maine version needs the required disclosure. That is a common process failure, not a legal edge case.

If a posting is not clearly limited to Maine, the safer operational step is to treat the posting like it may be covered and include the range. Maine JobLink’s employer policy also treats postings as job announcements that must comply with state law, which is consistent with the statute’s focus on recruitment postings rather than office location. Employers should not rely on a generic national template for a Maine-facing role.

If you are building a hiring workflow, write the salary range into the job template, not as an afterthought. That prevents accidental noncompliance when the same remote opening is copied into a new channel. For teams using a platform like DevConnect, the practical move is the same: keep the posting text current, because the disclosure has to appear in the job ad itself, not in a follow-up message.

What happens if the employer gets it wrong is not complicated. Maine’s enacted law places enforcement with the Department of Labor and sets a penalty of up to $500 for a violation. That is not the largest risk in hiring, but it is an avoidable one, and the bigger cost is usually rework: pulling the posting, rewriting it, and reposting it with the missing range.

A practical example helps. A Portland-based employer posts a fully remote software job for applicants anywhere, but the role is open to a Maine worker and the employer has 25 employees. That posting should include the pay range. A separate ad for a role that is genuinely outside Maine and not a Maine position is a different analysis, but the employer should document that decision before publishing.

For employers, the clean rule is this: if the remote role is a Maine posting and the business has at least 10 employees, include the pay range in the job ad. If the role is commission-only, say that instead. If the business is below the threshold, the specific Maine posting requirement does not apply, though other wage laws still do.

For applicants, the useful check is equally direct: look for the range in the posting itself. If a Maine remote job ad does not show one and the employer appears to be covered, the employer may be out of compliance. The safest next step is to ask for the range before spending time on interviews.

FAQ

Does Maine require a salary range for every remote job No. The posting rule applies when the job is a Maine position and the employer has 10 or more employees. Remote work alone does not create an exemption or an automatic requirement by itself.

Do commission-only remote jobs need a wage range No. Maine’s law says that if the position is compensated solely on commission, the posting must state that the compensation is based solely on commission.

Does the rule apply to job ads posted on third-party sites Yes. Maine’s definition of posting includes recruitment done directly by an employer or indirectly through a third party, and it includes electronic postings.

What is the penalty for missing the range The enacted law says a violation is subject to a penalty of up to $500.

Where should employers check the current wording before posting Start with the Maine Legislature’s enacted pay-transparency law and Maine Department of Labor guidance. The statute is the controlling text, and MDOL materials help with day-to-day application.