An Act to Report Gender Wage Gaps
Maine Legislature, Session 132, LD 0799
Sponsors: ROEDER
Amends: 26 MRSA §628-B

Legislative Document
No. 799
H.P. 506
House of Representatives, March 4, 2025
An Act to Report Gender Wage Gaps
Received by the Clerk of the House on February 27, 2025.  Referred to the Committee on 
Labor pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed pursuant to Joint Rule 401.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative ROEDER of Bangor.
Cosponsored by Representatives: GEIGER of Rockland, MACIAS of Topsham, STOVER of 
Boothbay, Senator: TIPPING of Penobscot.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  26 MRSA §628-B is enacted to read:
§628-B.  Report gender wage gaps
1. Definitions.  As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the 
following terms have the following meanings.
A. "Covered employer" means an employer that employs at least one employee within 
the State and at least 250 employees within the United States at any time within the 
reporting period.
B. "Employee" means a person who may be permitted, required or directed by an 
employer in consideration of direct or indirect gain or profit, to engage in employment.
C. "Employer" has the same meaning as in section 1043, subsection 9.
D. "Hourly equivalent rate of pay" means the rate of pay calculated by dividing the 
total amount of wages earned by an employee in a snapshot week by the number of 
hours worked in that week by the employee.  For a salaried employee without recorded 
hours, "hourly equivalent rate of pay" means the rate of pay calculated by dividing the 
total amount of the salaried employee's wages in a week by 40.
E. "Nonbinary" means a gender identity that falls outside the male-female gender 
binary.
F. "Reporting period" means the time period between October 1st and December 31st.
G. "Snapshot week" means any consecutive 7-day time period during the reporting 
period chosen by a covered employer.
2. Collection of data.  Beginning in 2025, and annually thereafter, a covered employer 
shall designate a snapshot week during which the covered employer shall collect the data 
under subsection 3 of all the employees of the covered employer. The gender of an 
employee is based on self-identification by the employee.  An employer may submit the 
gender of an employee based upon an existing record if the employee's gender in the record 
is based upon self-identification by the employee.  Prior to submitting the data to the bureau 
pursuant to subsection 3, the employer shall allow an employee the opportunity to review 
the submission and make any correction to an error in the employee's data.
3. Reporting of data.  Beginning June 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, a covered 
employer shall submit to the bureau a report based upon data collected in the most recent 
snapshot week pursuant to subsection 2, including:
A. The number of male employees;
B. The median hourly equivalent rates of pay of all male employees;
C. The number of female employees;
D. The median hourly equivalent rates of pay of all female employees;
E. The number of nonbinary employees;
F. The median hourly equivalent rates of pay of all nonbinary employees; and
G. The gender wage gap calculated by the percentage derived by dividing paragraph B 
by paragraph D. 
The median hourly equivalent rates of pay in paragraphs B, D and F may be reported only 
if the number of employees reported on is equal to or greater than 100 for each paragraph. 
A covered employer may not report personally identifiable information to the bureau 
pursuant to this subsection.
4. Publication. No later than September 1, 2026 and each year thereafter, the bureau 
shall publish on its publicly accessible website the reports received by every covered 
employer. A published report must include the employer's name. The bureau shall publish 
on its publicly accessible website and forward to the joint standing committees of the 
Legislature having jurisdiction over labor and human rights matters a summary of the data 
received under subsection 3 and the bureau's findings derived from the data.
5. Record retention. A covered employer shall retain the data required to be collected 
under subsections 2 and 3 for at least one year after the submission of the report containing 
that data.
6. Penalties. A covered employer that violates this section is subject to a civil penalty 
not to exceed $1,000.
7. Rules. The bureau may adopt routine technical rules under Title 5, chapter 375, 
subchapter 2-A to carry out the purposes of this section.
SUMMARY
This bill requires employers with at least one employee within the State and at least 
employees in the United States to annually report for a one-week period between 
October 1st and December 31st of the preceding year the number of male, female and 
nonbinary employees in the employer's employ, the median hourly equivalent rates of pay 
of all male, female and nonbinary employees in the employer's employ and the gender wage 
gap calculated by dividing the median hourly equivalent rate of pay of all the male 
employees by the median hourly equivalent rate of pay of all the female employees.