Ramstad: With countdown on to Minnesota’s new paid leave law, workers can already make plans

In less than three months, Minnesota begins its new state-run program to pay workers when they need time off for prolonged illness or to take care of a new baby. For many, the time to start preparing has arrived.

If you’re pregnant, there are steps you can take right now. Even if you have your baby before Jan. 1, you can time your leave from work to begin in January. In a family, a mom can take 12 weeks for bonding time and then a dad can, or vice versa.

And if you own or run a business, there are also things to be done now, such as deciding whether to offer benefits better than the state’s.

Officially called Minnesota Paid Leave, the program brings time-off benefits to all workers in the state for the first time.

It will be run the same way as unemployment insurance and by the same agency, the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). DEED Deputy Commissioner Evan Rowe has a countdown clock in his office ticking down to the Jan. 1 launch.

“If somebody is expecting to welcome your child into your home or you know you have a planned medical procedure coming up, they can go online and use the calculators to understand what the benefits would be,” Rowe said in a recent briefing for reporters.

“They could start talking to their employer today if they have a known leave coming,” he added. “Just like any leave, the more you plan ahead, the better it works for everybody.”

The program is the most visible outcome of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act that was one of the signature policies created by the DFL trifecta government in 2023. And it’s a major expansion of the state’s reach into workers’ lives. Its success or failure, particularly in its opening months, could wind up affecting the 2026 election.

DEED has held dozens of meetings and workshops around the state to familiarize businesses with the program.

Each business will need to designate someone to interact with the Minnesota Paid Leave office as a leave administrator, chiefly to verify leave claims by employees. They should do that as soon as possible, state officials said.

The agency’s online portal for administrators is also up and running, and so is a call center that will serve both employers and employees. (The call center numbers are 651-556-7777 and 844-556-0444.)

Still, there are many employers who still haven’t quite tuned in to the program or don’t fully understand it.

“Who here is nervous?” Kate Bischoff, a Minneapolis attorney who was one of the presenters, asked as the workshop began.

About half the people in the room raised their hand.

An association of human resources managers is offering training on the paid leave program Monday in a conference at Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake.

And the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce will host a workplace compliance conference on Oct. 21 to help employers. Greg Norfleet, leader of the Minnesota Paid Leave program, will be on hand to demonstrate the system.

“I feel really great about where we are,” Norfleet said. “We feel confident we’re going to meet or beat our statutory deadlines, and I think we’re going to have an unexpectedly pleasant user experience.”

Minnesota Paid Leave doesn’t cover 100% of a worker’s wages when they go out on leave. Employers will have the option to make up the difference, or to run their paid leave program as long as the benefits are at least as good as the state one.

“That’s a strategy that has worked well in the 12 other states where you have state-run paid leave programs,” Rowe said. “Fundamentally, whether somebody goes with the state plan or whether they use a private insurer, overall the benefits required under the law are the same.”

Out of the state’s 3 million workers, about 10,000 to 12,000 people a month are on paid leave. That means at any given moment the program will be serving one-third as many Minnesotans as get paid in the unemployment insurance program.

However, efficiency still matters to its success. Norfleet said Minnesota Paid Leave aims to provide approvals or denials of leave payment applications within two weeks of submission.

When an employee submits a leave benefit request, his or her employer will have seven days to verify it. After that, Minnesota Paid Leave will look at it and assign the payout.