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A Brief History of PAGEmployment

The Maine State Legislature passed the first law regulating employment agencies in 1907. Among the provisions of the new law was a limit on the fee that could be charged to a job applicant for the services of the agency. The maximum fee was set at $1.00 and, if the applicant paid this sum in advance and had not been placed in a job within six days, the agency was required to refund the fee.

In 1945, C. Everett “Rip” Page established the Page Teachers’ Placement Agency. Teacher’s agencies were exempt from the laws regulating other types of employment agencies, but were non-profit organizations. In 1953, Rip became interested in expanding the scope of the company to include all types of placements and in providing secretarial services to client companies – for profit.

A major obstacle to attaining Rip’s goal was that the 1907 law was still on the books and the $1.00 fee had remained in effect for nearly 50 years. Operating a profitable business was not possible with such a law in existence. Rip contacted state legislators and lobbied for a change to the statute. He finally succeeded when the revised law, which became effective in 1958, allowed employment agencies to charge up to one half of the first full week’s wages for finding jobs. In later years, this fee was doubled to the first full week’s wages. In the mid-1990’s, PAGEmployment discontinued the practice of charging job applicants the fee and has, since then, collected its placement fees from hiring companies.

Rip set up the Page Employment Agency in an office on Columbia Street, in Bangor. Later, he relocated the business to Hammond Street, above what is now the Grasshopper Shop and then to Central Street. In 1964, William Baxter became a partner with Rip, working out of the Central Street location. In 1971, Bill bought the business and moved it to Exchange Street in Bangor. Page Employment became PAGEmployment in 1990 when it was incorporated under the laws of the State of Maine with Bill and his wife, Gerry, as the two stockholders of the corporation.

Shortly afterwards, their eldest son, Scott, joined the business, soon followed by their youngest child, Eric.

Eric became the company safety director, a new position that reflected PAGEmployment's commitment to improving work place safety for its temporary employees, a commitment that remains a cornerstone of the company philosophy today.

Yet another move for the business took place in June, 1999, when the company moved from Bangor to North Main Street in Brewer and occupied a building that had substantially more office and parking space than was available at the Exchange Street location.