Maine
Workers' Comp Exemption

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.

What failing to secure coverage actually costs in Maine

Maine sizes its civil penalty against the premium the employer dodged rather than a flat number, and a knowing violation adds a separate criminal charge along with real business-existence consequences.

A knowing failure to secure required coverage is a Class D crime. Separately, the employer is liable for a civil penalty of up to $10,000, or up to 108% of the premium that should have been paid for the uninsured period (calculated using MEMIC's standard discounted premium), whichever is larger — payable to the Employment Rehabilitation Fund. The board weighs the employer's compliance efforts in setting the amount.

Beyond the fine, the Act allows administrative dissolution of a noncompliant corporation or LLC, or revocation or suspension of a license, certification, or registration the business needs to operate.

• Knowing violation: Class D crime
• Civil penalty: greater of $10,000 or 108% of the unpaid premium for the period
• Possible administrative dissolution of the company or revocation/suspension of its license or registration