Maine Workplace Harassment Laws: Any Employer, 300 Days (2026)

Workplace harassment is unlawful in Maine under the Maine Human Rights Act, which defines "discriminate" to include subjecting a person to harassment (5 M.R.S. § 4553(2)) and makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate with respect to the "terms, conditions or privileges of employment" because of a protected class (5 M.R.S. § 4572(1)(A)). The Act covers any employer "employing any number of employees" (§ 4553(4)), so a business with a single employee is inside it.

Three Maine rules stand out: every employer must post a sexual harassment notice and give each employee annual written notice, employers with 15 or more employees must train new employees (26 M.R.S. § 807), and a 2023 law makes employees, supervisors, officers and directors personally liable for sexual harassment (39-A M.R.S. § 104-A). For other states, see workplace harassment laws by state.

Information last verified on 2026-10-20. This article has not been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Jurisdiction scope: This article covers Maine state law on workplace harassment by employers, supervisors and coworkers under the Maine Human Rights Act (5 M.R.S. chapter 337, chiefly §§ 4553, 4572, 4611, 4613, 4622 and 4633), the sexual harassment policy law (26 M.R.S. § 807), the nondisclosure law (26 M.R.S. § 599-C) and 39-A M.R.S. § 104-A. It does not cover wrongful firing or the full complaint and lawsuit procedure (see Maine wrongful termination), damages estimates, criminal harassment or stalking, harassment outside employment, or federal-employee procedure.

Maine harassment rules at a glance

What Maine law prohibits

The Maine Human Rights Act has no stand-alone harassment section. It reaches harassment through its definition of discrimination:

"'Discriminate' includes, without limitation, segregate, separate or subject to harassment." (5 M.R.S. § 4553(2))

The employment prohibition in § 4572(1)(A) then makes it unlawful for an employer, because of a protected class, "to discharge an employee or discriminate with respect to hire, tenure, promotion, transfer, compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment or any other matter directly or indirectly related to employment."

Harassment under the commission's rule

The Maine Human Rights Commission's Employment Regulations (94-348 C.M.R. ch. 3, § 10) state that "Harassment on the basis of protected class is a violation of Section 4572 of the Act." Unwelcome advances because of protected class (for example, sexual advances or requests for sexual favors), comments, jokes, acts and other verbal or physical conduct related to protected class, or directed toward a person because of protected class, constitute unlawful harassment when:

• submission to the conduct is made, explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of an individual's employment or union membership;
• submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as the basis for employment or union membership decisions affecting the individual; or
• the conduct "has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or union environment."

Under § 10(4), the commission looks "at the record as a whole and at the totality of the circumstances," and decides the legality of a particular action from the facts, case by case. The Act itself does not set a hostile-environment standard; the wording above comes from the commission's rule, not from the statute.

Which Maine employers are covered

Section 4553(4) defines an employer as including "any person in this State employing any number of employees, whatever the place of employment of the employees, and any person outside this State employing any number of employees whose usual place of employment is in this State." The definition also includes "any person acting in the interest of any employer, directly or indirectly, such that the person's actions are considered the actions of the employer for purposes of liability," and labor organizations.

There is one exclusion. "Employer" does not include a religious or fraternal corporation or association, not organized for private profit and in fact not conducted for private profit, "with respect to employment of its members of the same religion, sect or fraternity, except for purposes of disability-related discrimination."

By comparison, Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act applies to employers with "fifteen or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year."

Employer size does matter for remedies. The compensatory and punitive damages limits in § 4613(2)(B)(8) are written for respondents with more than 14 employees; remedies are covered on the Maine wrongful termination page.

Who is protected

Section 4553(3) defines an employee as "an individual employed by an employer." It excludes "any individual employed by that individual's parents, spouse or child, except for purposes of disability-related discrimination." Interns and job applicants are named expressly in the nondisclosure statute, 26 M.R.S. § 599-C, discussed below.

Protected classes in Maine

Section 4572(1)(A) bars discrimination because of:

• race or color;
• sex (which includes pregnancy and medical conditions that result from pregnancy, § 4572-A(1));
• sexual orientation or gender identity;
• physical or mental disability;
• religion;
• age;
• ancestry;
• national origin;
• familial status;
• a previous assertion of a claim or right under former Title 39 or Title 39-A (workers' compensation);
• previous actions protected under Title 26, chapter 7, subchapter 5-B (the Whistleblowers' Protection Act); and
• having sought and received an order of protection under Title 19-A, former section 4007, or a final protection order under Title 19-A, section 4110, or a substantially similar law of another state or nation.

Employer responsibility and the individual harasser

When the employer answers for harassment

The Act states that in deciding whether a person acted as an agent or employee of another so as to make that other person responsible, "the question of whether the specific acts performed were actually authorized or subsequently ratified is not controlling" (§ 4553(10)(E)).

The commission's harassment rule (94-348 C.M.R. ch. 3, § 10) sets out who answers for what:

• Supervisors, tangible action: "When the supervisor's harassment culminates in a tangible employment or union membership action, such as, but not limited to, discharge, demotion, or undesirable reassignment, liability attaches to the employer regardless of whether the employer knew or should have known of the harassment" (§ 10(2)).
• Supervisors, no tangible action: the employer "may raise an affirmative defense to liability or damages by proving by a preponderance of the evidence" that it "exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any harassing behavior" and that the employee "unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise" (§ 10(2)).
• Coworkers and non-employees: the employer is responsible for unlawful harassment in the workplace "where the employer, or its agents or supervisory employees, knows or should have known of the conduct unless it can show that it took immediate and appropriate corrective action"; for non-employees, the commission considers the extent of the employer's control (§ 10(3)).

Can an individual be sued personally?

Maine has two answers, from two different laws.

Under the Maine Human Rights Act, no supervisor liability as an "employer." In Fuhrmann v. Staples the Office Superstore East, Inc., 2012 ME 135, 58 A.3d 1083, the Law Court held: "Pursuant to either statutory definition of 'employer,' there is no individual supervisor liability for employment discrimination."

Under 39-A M.R.S. § 104-A, personal liability for sexual harassment. Enacted in 2023 (P.L. 2023, c. 126), the section provides:

"An employee, supervisor, officer or director of an employer is liable for sexual harassment, sexual assault or an intentional tort related to sexual harassment or sexual assault." (39-A M.R.S. § 104-A(1))

The same section states that it "may not be construed to impose liability on an employer" for that conduct (§ 104-A(2)), and that it "does not prohibit or limit an action alleging employment discrimination pursuant to the Maine Human Rights Act or Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964" (§ 104-A(3)). Employer liability for harassment is addressed by the Human Rights Act, not by § 104-A.

Retaliation for complaining

Section 4633(1) provides that "A person may not discriminate against any individual because that individual has opposed any act or practice that is unlawful under this Act or because that individual made a charge, testified, assisted or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding or hearing under this Act." The Act's remedies and procedures apply to retaliation claims (§ 4633(3)). Firings after a complaint, and how they fit with the state's default employment rule, are covered on the Maine at-will employment and Maine wrongful termination pages.

Deadlines and where to file

The Maine Human Rights Commission takes complaints under the Act.

• Commission deadline: 300 days. A complaint must be filed "under oath" and "not more than 300 days after the alleged act of unlawful discrimination" (5 M.R.S. § 4611). The commission's FAQ adds: "For most types of claims, that 300-day deadline starts from the time that a reasonable person would have become aware of facts supporting a claim."
• Filing first matters for remedies: attorney's fees and civil penal, compensatory or punitive damages "may not be awarded to a plaintiff in a civil action under this Act unless the plaintiff alleges and establishes that, prior to the filing of the civil action, the plaintiff first filed a complaint with the commission" and the commission took one of the actions listed in § 4622(1), such as issuing a right-to-sue letter under § 4612(6).
• Lawsuit deadline: an action "must be commenced not more than either 2 years after the act of unlawful discrimination complained of or 90 days after any of the occurrences listed under section 4622, subsection 1, paragraphs A to D, whichever is later" (§ 4613(2)(C)).
• Federal charge: the EEOC states that its "180 calendar day filing deadline is extended to 300 calendar days if a state or local agency enforces a law that prohibits employment discrimination on the same basis." The EEOC's Boston Area Office lists the Maine Human Rights Commission as a fair employment practices agency and gives 300 days from the date of alleged harm to file a charge against an employer with 15 or more employees in Maine (20 or more for age).

The right-to-sue process and the remaining procedure are on the Maine wrongful termination page. The Maine employment discrimination settlement calculator is an estimating tool, not a prediction of any outcome.

Sexual harassment training, posters and notices

Maine requires employers to act on sexual harassment through 26 M.R.S. § 807. The section opens: "all employers shall act to ensure a workplace free of sexual harassment by implementing the following minimum requirements."

Every employer: poster and annual notice

• Workplace posting: an employer "shall post in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace a poster" giving, at a minimum, the illegality of sexual harassment, a description of sexual harassment using examples, the complaint process available through the commission, and directions on how to contact the commission (§ 807(1)).
• Annual written notice: employers "shall provide annually all employees with individual written notice" covering, at a minimum, the illegality of sexual harassment, its definition under state law, a description using examples, the internal complaint process, the legal recourse and complaint process through the commission, how to contact the commission, and the protection against retaliation (§ 807(2)).

Employers with 15 or more employees: training

"In workplaces with 15 or more employees, employers shall conduct an education and training program for all new employees within one year of commencement of employment." (26 M.R.S. § 807(3))

Employers must also "conduct additional training for supervisory and managerial employees within one year of commencement of employment," covering at a minimum the specific responsibilities of supervisors and managers and the methods they must take "to ensure immediate and appropriate corrective action in addressing sexual harassment complaints" (§ 807(3)). For this subchapter, an employee is "any person engaged to work on a steady or regular basis, whether full-time or part-time" (§ 806(2)).

Employers must use the checklist described in § 807(4) to develop the training program, keep a record of who received the training, and keep training records "for at least 3 years" (§ 807(4)). The Department of Labor enforces the section. An employer that violates the notification, education or training requirements may be fined $1,000 for a first violation, $2,500 for a second, and $5,000 for a third or later violation (§ 807(6)(B)).

NDAs and settlement agreements

Section 599-C of Title 26, enacted in 2021 (P.L. 2021, c. 760), limits agreements about unlawful employment discrimination as the Human Rights Act defines it.

• Before and during employment: "An employer may not require an employee, intern or applicant for employment to enter into a contract or agreement that waives or limits any right to report or discuss unlawful employment discrimination, as defined and limited by Title 5, chapter 337, subchapter 3, occurring in the workplace or at work-related events" (§ 599-C(2)).
• Settlement, separation and severance agreements: barred terms. An employer may not require an employee, intern or applicant to enter into such an agreement with a provision that limits the right to report, testify or provide evidence to a federal or state agency that enforces employment or discrimination laws, prevents testifying or providing evidence in federal and state court proceedings in response to legal process, or prohibits reporting conduct to a law enforcement agency (§ 599-C(3)).
• Settlement, separation and severance agreements: confidentiality terms. Such an agreement may include a provision preventing later disclosure of factual information relating to a claim of unlawful employment discrimination only if the agreement expressly provides separate monetary consideration for that provision beyond anything the individual is already entitled to; the provision applies to all parties to the extent otherwise permitted by law; the agreement "clearly states that the individual retains the right to report, testify or provide evidence"; and the employer keeps a copy of the agreement for 6 years (§ 599-C(4)).
• Enforcement: the Department of Labor enforces the section, and "An employer that intentionally violates this section commits a civil violation for which a fine of up to $1,000 may be adjudged" (§ 599-C(5)).

Federal law adds limits for sexual harassment disputes: the Speak Out Act makes nondisclosure and nondisparagement clauses agreed to before a dispute arises judicially unenforceable where the conduct is alleged to violate federal, tribal or state law, and the Ending Forced Arbitration Act lets the person alleging sexual harassment elect court over a predispute arbitration agreement. Both are explained on the workplace harassment laws hub.

Is workplace bullying illegal in Maine?

The Maine Human Rights Act reaches harassment as a form of discrimination because of a protected class. Neither the Act nor Title 26, chapter 7 contains a general workplace-bullying provision for private employers that reaches hostility unconnected to a protected class.

Documenting harassment and workplace monitoring

The rules on recording a conversation at work, including a conversation with a harasser, are on the Maine workplace recording laws page. Employer monitoring of email, devices and workspaces is covered on the Maine employee monitoring laws page.

Recent changes to Maine harassment law

• 2012: the Law Court decided Fuhrmann v. Staples, holding that, under either statutory definition of "employer" in the Act, there is no individual supervisor liability for employment discrimination.
• 2021: 26 M.R.S. § 599-C limited agreements that waive or restrict reporting or discussing unlawful employment discrimination (P.L. 2021, c. 760).
• 2023: 39-A M.R.S. § 104-A made employees, supervisors, officers and directors liable for sexual harassment, sexual assault and related intentional torts (P.L. 2023, c. 126). The same year, P.L. 2023, c. 255 and c. 263 amended the right-to-sue, remedies and lawsuit-timing sections (§§ 4612(6), 4622 and 4613).

Related pages

• Workplace harassment laws by state
• Maine wrongful termination
• Maine at-will employment laws
• Maine employee monitoring laws
• Maine workplace recording laws

This article provides general legal information about Maine workplace harassment law under the Maine Human Rights Act, 26 M.R.S. §§ 599-C and 807, and 39-A M.R.S. § 104-A as of 2026-10-20. It is not legal advice. For advice about a specific situation, contact a lawyer licensed in Maine or the Maine Human Rights Commission.

Last updated: 2026-10-20.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is workplace harassment illegal in Maine?

The Maine Human Rights Act defines 'discriminate' to include subjecting a person to harassment (5 M.R.S. § 4553(2)), and § 4572(1)(A) bars employers from discriminating in the terms, conditions or privileges of employment because of a protected class such as sex, race or disability.

Does Maine harassment law apply to small employers?

Yes. Section 4553(4) defines an employer as any person employing any number of employees, with an exclusion for religious or fraternal nonprofits as to members of the same religion, sect or fraternity, except for disability-related discrimination.

How long do you have to file a harassment complaint in Maine?

A complaint to the Maine Human Rights Commission must be filed not more than 300 days after the alleged act of unlawful discrimination (5 M.R.S. § 4611). A lawsuit must be started within the later of 2 years after the act or 90 days after a commission event listed in § 4622(1) (§ 4613(2)(C)).

Does Maine require sexual harassment training?

Under 26 M.R.S. § 807(3), employers with 15 or more employees must train all new employees within one year of the start of employment and give supervisors and managers added training within one year of the start of their employment. Every employer, regardless of size, must post a sexual harassment poster and give employees annual written notice.

Can you sue a supervisor personally for sexual harassment in Maine?

Under the Maine Human Rights Act, the Law Court held in Fuhrmann v. Staples (2012) that, under either statutory definition of 'employer,' there is no individual supervisor liability for employment discrimination. Separately, 39-A M.R.S. § 104-A (2023) makes an employee, supervisor, officer or director liable for sexual harassment, sexual assault or a related intentional tort.

Can a Maine employer make you sign an NDA about harassment?

26 M.R.S. § 599-C bars an employer from requiring an employee, intern or applicant to sign an agreement that waives or limits the right to report or discuss unlawful employment discrimination in the workplace or at work-related events. A settlement, separation or severance agreement an employer requires may not limit reports or evidence to enforcement agencies, testimony in court in response to legal process, or reports to law enforcement (§ 599-C(3)), and a confidentiality term about the facts of a claim is allowed only with separate pay, mutuality, a retained-rights statement and 6-year retention (§ 599-C(4)).

Is workplace bullying illegal in Maine?

The Maine Human Rights Act reaches harassment because of a protected class. Neither the Act nor Title 26, chapter 7 contains a general bullying provision for private employers that reaches hostility unconnected to a protected class.