Thousands have received paid family leave under Maine’s new program
Andrew Thompson with his wife, Katherine, play with their daughter, Lucy, at their home in Bath. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)
Andrew Thompson said he wouldn’t have been able to take much time off from work after the birth of his daughter had it not been for Maine’s new paid family and medical leave law.
Thompson, a baker at Scratch Bakery in South Portland, said his wife, Katherine, gave birth to Lucy, their first child, in January. She received paid leave through her work as an elementary school teacher, but Thompson said the bakery didn’t have its own program, so he received paid time through the state program.
Maine’s paid leave law was approved by lawmakers in 2023, and was fully implemented this year. Maine residents could begin applying for their paid leave benefits in March, and start receiving them in May.
“Having it be paid leave was absolutely necessary,” said Thompson, of Bath. “I have a steady gig with reliable hours, but it’s not the most robust pay for either of us. We live pretty frugally. Had it not been paid for three months, we would have had to figure out a pretty different scenario.”
According to a report released this month by the Maine Department of Labor, 4,720 claims were approved between March 30 and June 30 under the new law. Pregnancy or bonding with a child amounted to 45.6% of claims, 42.4% were for medical leave other than pregnancy and 11.6% were to care for a family member with a health condition.
The average weekly benefit was about $816.
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The law provides up to 90% of pay for 12 weeks of time off for leave that includes caring for a newborn or an ill family member, or the worker’s own medical condition.
Andrew Thompson with his wife, Katherine, and their daughter, Lucy, at their home in Bath. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)
Thompson said his wife took her leave when Lucy was born, and he took off May, June and July. He said he hasn’t added it all up, but he was able to earn thousands per month, plus avoid monthly daycare costs.
“It gave us that extra time to learn those new skills, what the child needs in the moment,” Thompson said. “I got to bond with Lucy. It can take fathers longer to bond with their kids if they have to immediately go back to work.”
State Sen. Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, one of the lawmakers who spearheaded the law, said she’s heard anecdotally that paid leave is incentivizing families to raise their children in Maine.
“We are seeing folks be able to afford raising kids here, where they may not have before,” Daughtry said.
Daughtry said another benefit for people is it gives them time to recover from a major surgery, rather than rushing back to work.
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Luke Monahan, director of paid family and medical leave with the Maine Department of Labor, said he expects the new law will improve workforce participation, based on what’s occurred in the other 12 states, plus the District of Columbia, that already have paid leave laws. Among the New England states, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island also have paid leave programs.
“People who were on the sidelines now may be able to come back into the workforce,” Monahan said.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research released a study in 2020 that showed paid leave boosted workforce participation for women in New Jersey and California, when comparing rates before and after those states implemented their programs.
In Maine, the benefits are paid for through a 1% payroll tax, split evenly between the employer and employee.
Monahan said the Department of Labor expects participation will increase in 2027 and then plateau because, by then, the public will have a greater awareness of the program.
Destie Hohman Sprague, executive director of the Maine Women’s Lobby advocacy group, said she’s pleased to see people receiving their benefits, but would like to see the denial rate decrease.
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The state rejected 1,772 of 6,492 claims for a variety of reasons, including failure to send in documentation needed to support the claim, being ineligible under the minimum income requirements, and the state being unable to verify the identity of the person applying, according to the claims report.
“It’s a big complicated program,” Sprague said. “Everybody seeking these benefits right now is the first person in their family to do this. We know it’s going to be a big learning curve from the administration side and the worker side.”
Monahan said people considering applying for benefits should first determine if their employer offers paid leave.
Thompson said because his wife is a teacher, several weeks of his paid leave time in June and July overlapped with her time off.
“There was laundry everywhere, but at the end of the day we knew we were in it together,” Thompson said. “It just made the experience of having a baby that much more special.”
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Tagged: maine department of labor, paid family leave
Joe Lawlor writes about health and human services for the Press Herald. A 24-year newspaper veteran, Lawlor has worked in Ohio, Michigan and Virginia before relocating to Maine in 2013 to join the Press. More by Joe Lawlor
