2025 New England Employment Law Changes

Massachusetts Pay Transparency Law

Beginning on October 29, 2025, this law imposes new salary posting rules that apply to Massachusetts employers with 25 or more employees. The new salary posting requirements include: (i) disclosing pay ranges (annual salary or hourly wage) in all job postings – internal or external, and (ii) providing pay range information upon an employee’s request for their current position or when offering a promotion or transfer to a new role.

Maine Paid Family & Medical Leave Contributions

Contributions to Maine’s Paid Family and Medical Leave (“PFML”) Fund began on January 1, 2025. Once benefits are available, all employees other than federal employees will be able to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave per year if they earn at least six times the state average weekly wage in earnings subject to PFML premiums during the four quarters preceding the benefit year. Self-employed individuals may opt into the program.

Employers with 15 or more covered employees must pay a premium of 1% of wages to the ME PFML Fund, and may deduct up to 50% of the premium (0.5% of wages) from employees’ wages. Employers with fewer than 15 employees are required to contribute 0.5% and may deduct the full amount from employees’ wages.   

Employers that maintain a private plan providing benefits, rights, and protections that are substantially equivalent to the state program may apply for a private plan exemption and need not make contributions to the ME PFML Fund.

ME PFML benefits will be available starting May 1, 2026. However, due to a high volume of employers electing to establish private plans instead of participating in the state program, the ME PFML is reportedly underfunded. As a result, the Maine Department of Labor has indicated that the start date for benefit availability may be postponed.

New Hampshire Nursing Break Requirements

Effective July 1, 2025, employers with six or more employees must provide nursing employees with 30-minute unpaid lactation breaks for every three hours of work for up to one year after the birth of a child. The lactation breaks must be provided regardless of the nursing employee’s classification or whether the break overlaps with regular rest periods. These breaks are for expressing breast milk which does not include breastfeeding. The law allows the break to be taken concurrently with any other break the employer already provides.

Employers must provide a private space for nursing, other than a bathroom. The space must be within a reasonable walk of the employee’s worksite, unless otherwise mutually agreed, shielded from view, and free from intrusion. The space can be either temporary or permanent, but it must be clean, functional, and equipped with seating and an electrical outlet. The law requires employers to provide notice at the time of hire to all employees of the employer’s lactation break policy. It also requires nursing employees to provide two weeks’ advance notice before using the accommodation.

Employers may be exempt from this obligation if they can demonstrate that providing the accommodation imposes undue hardship, defined as significant difficulty or expense when considered with factors such as the size of the business, its financial resources, and the nature and structure of its operation.

Vermont Pay Transparency Law

Vermont’s Act Relating to Disclosure of Compensation in Job Advertisements became effective July 1, 2025. Act 155 requires employers with five or more employees and with at least one employee who works in Vermont to include a job’s salary or range of compensation in their job postings. Advertisements for jobs that are primarily compensated on a commission basis must state that the job is commission-based; however, they do not need to include a salary or an expected compensation range. Further, employers are now required to identify tip-compensated positions as such and include the applicable base wage or range of base wages in job postings.  

According to the Attorney General, disclosing the range of compensation means disclosing the minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly wage that the employer, acting in good faith, expects to pay for the advertised job at the time it creates the ad.

The new legislation excludes oral ads, general notices, and outdoor job openings outside Vermont. However, it doesn't apply to remote jobs mainly done in Vermont. Employers and workers can negotiate pay during hiring. Employers must be transparent about pay when posting a job.