ME PFML self-insurer bonds.
4% of the bond amount.
An employer running its own self-insured Paid Family and Medical Leave plan in place of the state program must furnish the Department of Labor a surety bond under 26 M.R.S. §850-H(2)(A), in the amount, form, and manner the Department requires. Premiums cost 4% of the bond amount, $100 minimum. The application includes a credit consent that authorizes a soft pull only — enter your approved bond amount to see your exact price.
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Apply to filed in one sitting.
The bond is one line item in a larger private-plan approval — enter the amount the Department set, consent to a soft pull, and it is done. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Your employer details, the bond amount your approved private-plan substitution requires, and the effective date — plus a one-time consent to a soft credit pull.
Approved
Most PFML self-insurer bonds clear quickly; the soft credit pull informs approval and never affects your score. Larger amounts may get a brief review.
File with the Department of Labor
Your executed bond arrives by email, ready to submit with your private-plan substitution filing or renewal. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the PFML self-insurer bond actually guarantees
Maine's Paid Family and Medical Leave program lets an employer substitute a private plan — fully insured, or self-insured — for coverage under the state fund, if the Department of Labor finds the plan substantially equivalent. 26 M.R.S. §850-H conditions a self-insured substitution on a surety bond: 'the employer must furnish a bond to the State... in the form, amount and manner required by the department.'
It is a three-party arrangement: the employer (the principal), the surety carrier, and the State of Maine (the obligee), with employees on approved leave as the protected parties. If the self-insured employer fails to pay benefits it owes, the Department can draw on the bond to make good on the shortfall — and if the surety pays, the employer repays the surety. Failing to maintain the bond is itself grounds for the Department to withdraw its approval of the private plan.
There is no statutory table for the amount — the Department fixes it, in the form and manner it requires, as part of approving the substitution. An approved substitution runs on a three-year term under the Department's implementing rule, with renewal due 30 days before expiration. Enter the amount your approval letter states; we price the bond from a $100 minimum after a one-time soft credit pull that never affects your score.
You need this bond if you are
One application, then a quick review.
Submit the application with the bond amount your Department approval requires, plus a one-time soft credit pull that never affects your score.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Maine bonds.
Keep your self-insured PFML plan compliant.
4% of the bond amount, $100 minimum. Enter the amount the Department set and file the same day. Free until issued.