An Act to Require that Certain Employees Be Paid on a Weekly Basis
Maine Legislature, Session 121, LD 1131
Committee: Labor
Sponsors: TWOMEY, HATCH, DUPLESSIE, PATRICK, PINGREE, BRYANT, EDMONDS, ST ANLEY, STRIMLING
Amends: 26 MRSA §621, 26 MRSA §621-B, 26 MRSA §622, 26 MRSA §623, 26 MRSA §626-C

Legislative Document 
No. 1131 
H.P.834 
House of Representatives, March 4,2003 
An Act to Require that Certain Employees Be Paid on a Weekly 
Basis 
Reference to the Committee on Labor suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative TWOMEY of Biddeford. 
Cosponsored by Senator HATCH of Somerset and 
11/~ 
/J7.11ltV:~ 
Mll..LICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Representatives: DUPLESSIE of Westbrook, HATCH of Skowhegan, PATRICK of Rumford, 
PINGREE of North Haven, Senators: BRYANT of Oxford, EDMONDS of Cumberland, 
ST ANLEY of Penobscot, STRIMLING of Cumberland. 
Printed on recycled paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 26 MRSA §621.A, as amended by PL 2001, c. 156, §1, is 
repealed. 
Sec. 2. 26 MRSA §621-B is enacted to read: 
§62l-B. 
P~nt of wages 
1. 
Certain employers; payment schedule. 
Every corporation, 
person or partnership engaged in a manufacturing, mechanical, 
m1n1ng, quarrying, mercantile, restaurant, hotel, 
summer 
camp, 
beauty parlor, amusement, telegraph or telephone business; in any 
of the building trades; in a logging or lumbering operation; upon 
public works; or in the construction or repair of roads, bridges, 
sewers or gas, water or electric light works, pipes or lines; 
every incorporated express company or water company; and every 
steam railroad company or corporation shall pay weekly each 
employee engaged in its business the wages earned by the employee 
to within 8 days of the date of that payment; every county shall 
so pay every employee who is engaged in its business the wages or 
salary earned by that employee, unless the employee requests in 
writing to be paid in a different manner. 
Municipalities shall 
pay their employees at least once every 
weeks 
unless the 
employee agrees to be paid under a less frequent pay schedule. 
An employee who is absent from that employee's regular place of 
employment at a time fixed for payment must be paid on demand. 
This subsection only applies to employees who are paid minimum 
~ 
2. 
All employers; payment of balance of hourly wages. 
An 
employer shall pay to its employee, on or before the employee's 
next regularly scheduled payday, the balance of the employee's 
earned hourly wages due to be paid that were not paid on the date 
normally scheduled for payment of those '" ~,ges. 
This subsection 
may not be construed to permit nonpayment or withholding of 
payment of wages when due. 
Sec. 3. 26 MRSA §622, as repealed and replaced by PL 1999, c. 
465, §3, is amended to read: 
§622. Records 
Every employer shall keep a true record showing the date and 
amount paid to each employee pursuant to section 96±-A 621-B. 
Every employer shall keep a daily record of the time worked by 
each such employee unless the employee is paid a salary that is 
fixed without regard for the number of hours worked. 
Records 
required to be kept by this section must be accessible to any 
Page l-LR0346(1) 
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representati ve 
of 
the 
department 
at 
any 
reasonable 
hour. 
Sections a61-A 621-6 to 623 do not excuse any employer subject to 
section 702 from keeping the records required by that section. 
Sec. 4. 26 MRSA §623, as amended by PL 1999, c. 790, Pt. P, 
§2 and affected by §3, is further amended to read: 
§623. 
Exemptions 
This section and sections a61-A 621-6 and 622 do not apply 
to 
~affii*y-~~-aBa-~~-~-effi~*eyees-~-ae~iBea-~~-see~ieB 
aa~T-sQ&see~ieB-~7-~~~-~~~r-~~-&~~-aB4-&66-ae 
Be1:--app-l-y--~e an employee of 
a 
cooperative corporation or an 
association if the employee is a stockholder of the corporation 
or association, unless 
the employee requests the association or 
corporation to pay that employee iB-aeeeraaBee-wi~R-see~ieB-e61-A 
weekly. 
EHee~~-~~~~~-iB-~~~-~61-Ar-£~b£e€~i~£--~-aBa 
T-a A corporation, contractor, person or partnership may not by 
a special contract with an employee or by any other means exempt 
itself from this section and sections a61-A 621-6 and 622. 
When 
the terms of employment include provisions for paid vacations, 
vacation pay on cessation of employment has the same status as 
wages earned. 
Sec. 5. 26 MRS A §626-A, first 1[, as amended by PL 1999, c. 465, 
§5, is further amended to read: 
Whoever violates any of 
621-6 to 623 or section 626, 
forfeiture of not less than 
violation. 
the 
628, 
$100 
provisions of sections a6±-A 
or 629-6 is subject to a 
nor more than $500 for each 
Sec. 6. 26 MRS A §626-A, 3rd~, as enacted by PL 1999, c. 465, 
§5, is repealed. 
Sec. 7. 26 MRSA §626-C is enacted to read: 
§626-C. 
Collective bargaining exceptions 
An employer is not considered to have violated section 626 
when, pursuant to a written and signed agreement made as a result 
of collective bargaining by representatives of employees, unpaid 
wages are paid within a different time period or a setoff or 
counterclaim 
is 
set 
up 
and 
when 
the 
contract 
or 
agreement 
specifies the length of the time period or the precise nature of 
the setoff or counterclaim, respectively. 
SUMMARY 
This bill requires that certain employees be paid on 
a 
weekly basis. 
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