In 2023, Maine created a Paid Family and Medical Leave program that costs businesses about 1% of every worker’s paycheck. Businesses can either buy insurance or pay for it themselves (called “self-insurance”).
Right now, businesses can work together to handle self-insurance as a group, sharing costs and paperwork. This makes it more affordable, especially for small businesses.
LD 2018 would ban businesses from working together on self-insurance. Each business would have to handle everything alone, making self-insurance much more expensive and complicated. The ban would apply backward to April 2025.
This means small businesses may not be able to afford self-insurance anymore, forcing them into the state program and raising costs for job creators and workers.