Maine
Workers' Comp Exemption
A Maine sole proprietor, partner, or LLC owner generally does not need workers' compensation coverage on the owner personally and does not file a personal WCB-2C waiver. A private-corporation owner who owns at least 20% of voting stock can seek a Board-approved WCB-2C waiver, subject to statutory limits. On a construction site, §105-A separately presumes a person doing construction work for a hiring agent is an employee unless the independent-contractor or heavy-equipment exception applies.
Entity types analyzed
- Sole proprietor
- LLC member
- Partner
- Corporate officer
Maine separates three concepts that are easy to mix together: owners who are already outside personal coverage without filing a waiver, corporate owners who need Board approval to waive benefits, and construction-site worker classification under a special presumption. A single 'owner exemption' label hides those different rules.
A Maine sole proprietor, partner, or LLC owner generally does not need workers' compensation coverage on the owner personally and does not file a personal WCB-2C waiver. A private-corporation owner who owns at least 20% of voting stock can seek a Board-approved WCB-2C waiver, subject to statutory limits. On a construction site, §105-A separately presumes a person doing construction work for a hiring agent is an employee unless the independent-contractor or heavy-equipment exception applies.
Owner treatment at a glance
Sole proprietorA sole proprietor does not need workers' compensation coverage on the proprietor personally and does not file a WCB-2C waiver for themself. The owner may elect personal coverage by written request to the insurance carrier.
LLC memberAn LLC owner/member does not need workers' compensation coverage on the member personally under the Board's waiver instructions and may elect coverage through a written request to the carrier. Family-member waivers are a separate WCB-2C use case.
PartnerA partner does not need workers' compensation coverage on the partner personally and does not file a personal owner waiver. A partner may elect personal coverage through the carrier.
Corporate officerA private-corporation executive officer is generally an employee. A bona fide owner of at least 20% of the outstanding voting stock may seek a Board-approved waiver on WCB-2C, except the statutory waiver does not apply to persons engaged in harvesting forest products. A professional-corporation shareholder has a separate shareholder route under the statute/form.
Three owner types are already outside personal coverage without filing WCB-2C
The Maine Workers' Compensation Board's waiver instructions say sole proprietors do not need to carry a workers' compensation policy on themselves and do not need to file a waiver. The same instructions give the same basic treatment to owners of partnerships and LLC owners/members.
Each of those owners can choose personal coverage by sending a written request to the workers' compensation carrier. If the owner later changes that election, the carrier must be notified in writing.
This means WCB-2C should not be used simply because an owner wants proof that a sole proprietor, partner, or LLC member is personally outside coverage. The form is designed for different statutory waiver categories.
A private-corporation owner needs the 20% voting-stock test and Board approval
Maine's employee definition includes executive officers of private corporations, but it creates a waiver route for a bona fide owner of at least 20% of the corporation's outstanding voting stock. The applicant uses a written statement to the Board rather than relying on the owner title alone.
WCB-2C asks for the actual number of voting shares issued by the employer and the number owned by the applicant. That design reinforces that the threshold is an ownership fact to document, not a label such as founder or president.
The statutory owner waiver has a notable boundary: it does not apply to a person engaged in harvesting forest products. A forest-products owner should not assume the ordinary 20% corporate-owner waiver is available merely because the share test is satisfied.
Signing WCB-2C is not enough—the waiver is invalid until the Board approves it
Both the form and the Board instructions state that waivers are not valid until approved by the Workers' Compensation Board. An owner should therefore keep the approved copy, not merely the signed application, as the operative record.
The instructions say an approved application is marked approved with its effective date. If a contract, carrier, or customer asks when the owner actually became excluded, the Board-approved document is the more useful evidence than the application-signature date.
The form also requires the applicant to notify the Board when the underlying information changes. An ownership transfer that drops a corporate owner below the required share level should trigger a fresh review rather than passive reliance on the old approval.
Maine builds a 30-day notice period into revoking a waiver
A person who previously waived benefits can revoke or rescind the waiver, but the statute and WCB-2C use a 30-day written-notice rule. The notice goes to the Board and the employer, and the Board instructions also tell the applicant to notify the insurance carrier.
That delay matters when an owner wants personal coverage before returning to hands-on work or taking on a riskier role. The compliance file should line up the waiver revocation with the carrier's coverage records rather than assuming coverage returns the day the owner signs a letter.
A planned ownership or job-duty change is therefore best handled before the change occurs. The 30-day window gives the business a concrete scheduling requirement.
Construction adds a worker-status presumption that owner paperwork does not erase
Maine's §105-A focuses on people performing construction work for a hiring agent. It presumes the person is the hiring agent's employee for workers' compensation purposes unless the person qualifies as a construction subcontractor under the independent-contractor definition or falls within the specified heavy-equipment exception.
The statute's definition of 'person' expressly reaches sole proprietors, working partners, working LLC members, working corporate owners, and other individuals. That breadth is why an owner-only rule from the waiver instructions cannot be copied onto a construction site without analyzing the §105-A relationship.
A contractor should document both sides: the owner's personal waiver/election status where relevant and the facts showing whether the person is a qualifying construction subcontractor for the particular hiring-agent relationship.
Knowingly operating uninsured on a construction site can produce a stop-work order
Section 105-A gives the Board a construction-specific enforcement tool. After the required hearing, a hiring agent or construction subcontractor found to have knowingly failed to secure workers' compensation for its employees can be subject to a stop-work order in addition to applicable penalties.
The statute describes circumstances that can establish a knowing violation, including prior coverage that was cancelled or not renewed, written notice from the Board that insurance was required, or prior violations.
For a small construction firm, that makes renewal tracking and subcontractor classification operational issues rather than just paperwork. Losing coverage and continuing work can affect the entire jobsite, not only a later injury claim.
Maine owner checklist
- Do not file a personal WCB-2C just because the owner is a sole proprietor, partner, or LLC member.
- For a private-corporation owner, document at least 20% of outstanding voting stock before using the corporate-owner waiver route.
- Keep the Board-approved WCB-2C and effective date; the signed application alone is not a valid waiver.
- Calendar 30 days when revoking a waiver and coordinate the change with the carrier.
- Apply the separate §105-A construction status test to people performing construction work.
- Recheck coverage immediately after hiring employees, changing ownership, or moving into construction work.
Filing reference
Coverage ruleMaine generally requires a private employer that hires and pays employees to secure workers' compensation, subject to statutory exclusions. A sole proprietor, partner, or LLC owner does not need a policy on the owner personally under the Board's waiver instructions, but employees of the business remain a separate coverage question.
Construction ruleMaine has a construction-specific status test rather than a separate numeric employee threshold. Under 39-A M.R.S. §105-A, a person performing construction work for a hiring agent is presumed to be the hiring agent's employee unless the person qualifies as a construction subcontractor/independent contractor or meets the heavy-equipment exception. Owner status alone does not settle the construction-worker classification question.
Form / electionWCB-2C — Application for Waiver (used for qualifying corporate owners and specified owner-family relationships; not required for the sole proprietor, partner, or LLC owner personally)
RenewalThe cited Board materials do not state a fixed annual renewal cycle for WCB-2C. The waiver can be revoked with 30 days' written notice, and the form warns that changed or inaccurate ownership/family facts may nullify the waiver.
Effective periodA WCB-2C waiver is not valid until the Workers' Compensation Board approves it. An approved waiver can be revoked or rescinded with 30 days' written notice to the Board and employer.
Responsible agency
Maine Workers' Compensation Board
Official source library
These are the state-agency, statutory, or state-board materials used for this guide. The page was last source-checked on 2026-08-26.