Maine job postings: when pay ranges are required

Do I need to include pay ranges in job postings for Maine roles now

Yes. Maine’s pay transparency law requires employers with 10 or more employees to include the prospective range of pay in job postings for available positions, and the law took effect on July 29, 2026. The Maine Department of Labor said the same rule in its July 20, 2026 announcement.

The part people miss is the employee count. The statute applies to an employer with 10 or more employees, not only to large companies with a formal compensation team. If your Maine operation crosses that threshold, the posting needs a pay range. If you are below it, the job-posting duty in this section does not apply.

The law defines a posting broadly. It covers a solicitation for a specific available position, whether the recruiting is done directly by the employer or through a third party, and it includes electronic and printed postings. That means the rule reaches standard ads, recruiter-posted listings, and similar recruiting notices, not just a careers page on your own site.

The required disclosure is the range of pay the employer anticipates relying on when setting wages for the role. Maine’s bill text says that range can come from an existing pay scale, a previously determined wage range, the actual range for equivalent positions, or the budgeted amount for the position. That definition matters because a posting range should reflect the pay you actually plan to use.

People also get the timeline wrong. This is not a future proposal, and it is not a voluntary best practice for covered employers. The Maine Legislature’s bill status shows LD 54 became chaptered law on April 24, 2026, and the Department of Labor’s guidance says the new labor laws, including pay transparency, began July 29, 2026.

There is another detail worth keeping straight. Maine also created a separate disclosure right for employees who ask for the range of pay for their own position, and employers must keep pay-history records for the duration of employment plus three years after termination. That is not the same thing as the job-posting requirement, but employers usually need to update the same internal pay records to comply with both.

If you are posting through a third-party recruiter, the obligation does not disappear. The statute says posting includes recruiting done indirectly through a third party, so the simplest practice is to give the range to anyone who can publish the listing on your behalf. If the external post goes live without the range, the posting is the problem, even if your internal draft had it.

The inconvenient part is that a real range is harder than a placeholder. A tight, defensible range helps, but it still needs to match what you would actually offer a successful applicant. Maine’s definition points to a range the employer anticipates relying on, so a fake number, an aspirational number, or a range disconnected from your budget creates risk instead of solving it.

A practical way to handle this is to pick the range before the posting goes out, then use that same range in every version of the ad. For example, if the role is budgeted at a specific band, publish that band in the careers page, the ATS feed, and any recruiter copy. That keeps the public listing aligned with the number your hiring manager will actually use. The statute’s broad definition of posting makes consistency important.

Do not confuse Maine’s rule with Google Play or other platform policies. This question is about jobs in Maine, and the relevant authority is Maine law, as summarized by the Maine Department of Labor and the enacted statute. For a company hiring in Maine, the safer assumption is simple: if you have 10 or more employees, include the pay range in the posting from the start.

If you are under 10 employees, the posting rule in this section does not apply, but the law still creates other pay-disclosure and recordkeeping duties. If you are close to the threshold, count carefully and keep the count current, because the law keys off employer size. The text does not give a casual exception for small teams that grow mid-cycle.

If you want a simple operational rule, use this one: Maine roles posted on or after July 29, 2026 need a pay range when the employer has 10 or more employees. That is the rule the Department of Labor has put in public guidance, and it matches the statutory text. Put the range in the ad before it goes live, and keep the number tied to the actual role.

For teams that want a clean internal process, DevConnect can sit alongside your hiring workflow, but the posting itself still has to meet Maine’s law. The legal requirement is the range in the job ad, not a note buried somewhere else. Publish the range where applicants can see it, and keep the version your recruiter shares identical. https://devconnectplatform.com

Related questions

Does this apply to remote jobs based outside Maine If the job posting is for a Maine role and your employer count is 10 or more, the posting rule is the one to watch. The statute focuses on the posting and the employer size, so the safest reading is to treat Maine roles as covered when you are recruiting for work in Maine.

What should count as the pay range Use the range you anticipate relying on to set wages for the position. Maine’s statute allows that range to come from a pay scale, a prior range, pay for equivalent positions, or the budgeted amount. The important part is that the public posting reflects the real compensation plan for the job.

What if we post through a recruiter or job board The posting still counts. Maine says a posting includes recruitment done directly by the employer or indirectly through a third party, so the range needs to travel with the ad wherever it appears. The cleanest practice is to approve one final version before anything is published.

What happens if the listing goes out without a range The posting is out of step with the statute. The document itself does not spell out the penalty in the text quoted above, so the practical response is to correct the listing immediately and align your internal process before the next posting goes live.