Lonsdale business owners sat in the City Council chambers Tuesday, expressing curiosity and frustration over new labor regulations hitting Minnesota in the coming months.
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry Systems, Communications and Educational Interventions Principal Dave Skovholt was brought in by the Lonsdale Economic Development Authority for a special presentation centered around some key regulations that came from the last legislative session, like Earned Sick and Safe Time, the Women’s Economic Security Act, and Paid Family Medical Leave.
Earned Sick and Safe Time was implemented at the start of this year. Any and all employees expected to work 80 hours or more annually and are not independent contractors are eligible for the new paid time off.
For every 30 hours worked, one hour of sick leave is earned, whether front-loaded at the start of the year or accrued over time. It can be paid out or carry over each year.
“I’m guessing this is evident to everyone,” Skovholt said. “But this time doesn’t need to be provided on top of other paid leave that you’re already offering. So most employers are just shifting time off that they’re already offering: paid time off, vacation, sick, different buckets of time. They’re shifting that to make sure that it fits with in their requirements of the law. So that essentially, in most cases, they’re not providing more time than they already were providing. But it may look a little different than two years ago.”
It requires employers to provide all employees with paid leave if they’re sick or need to care for a sick family member. If the employee or their family member is experiencing domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking, they can use their paid leave.
If the workplace closes due to public-health concerns or weather, they can use their leave. If they’re at risk of infecting others, they can use their leave. They can actually now use the paid leave for planning a funeral, attending a funeral or to address any financial or legal matters for a deceased family member.
Women’s Economic Security Act
The WESA is celebrating its 10-year anniversary since it became Minnesota law in 2014, noted Skovholt.
“One of the things I learned about this law that was pretty interesting is Minnesota was the first state to have one of these laws,” he said.
His presentation focused on three new amendments to the law that affect all employers, again regardless of company size. In other words, a company with one employee who works a few hours a week would be subject to the WESA and Earned Safe and Sick Time regulations.
The first amendment in the WESA involves lactating mothers who need to pump milk in the workplace. Employers now must provide a sanitary space with an electrical outlet that’s free from intrusion.
Typically, that translates to a room with an outlet that isn’t a bathroom and has a lockable door. Unless it’s during their already designated meal break, when an employee needs to pump, it must be on the clock.
Before, during and after the birth of a child, the parents can take off 12 weeks of unpaid leave and not be fired. This now applies to all employees, no matter how long they’ve worked for a company or how many employees work at the company.
“Let’s say you had somebody working for you for 10 months,” Skovholt said. “Potentially, they could be taking this leave. And previously, the employer can say ‘Well, you had to work here for at least one year.’ So that has been changed.”
Finally, the last change highlighted to this law is the employer is legally required to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant employees, like more frequent and longer restroom and meal and water breaks, as well as restrictions for lifting anything above 20 pounds. Employees may now request these and must be granted them, but an employer may not insist they be implemented onto someone.
Paid Family Medical Leave
Perhaps one of the more controversial new regulations that has many business owners, especially small business owners, uneasy is the Paid Family Medical Leave. Skovholt said they implemented a soft rebrand for this law to just be called Paid Leave.
“Basically, it’s a unemployment-like system, where the employer makes some payroll contributions and the employee makes a payroll contribution,” he said. “It starts in 2026. There will be some requirements starting 2025, reporting information. My understanding is is that, if you’re already into the UI system, you won’t need to do anything because you’re kind of reporting through that system already. They’re trying to integrate it as much as possible.”
He continued.
“This basically is the kind of a longterm version of the Earned Sick and Safe Time,” he said. “Where Sick and Safe is for a very short-term need, this is for longterm issues, whether it’s for pregnancy-related to parental-related issues, or serious health and medical conditions.”
While the Department of Employment and Economic Development is overseeing the brunt of this new law, the Labor and Industry Department would serve as the investigators for violations. So, Skovholt spoke on what he could, as a part of the Labor and Industry team.
“If there are situations where the employee is not reinstated after leave, or there’s retaliation because somebody’s asked for a leave, insurance coverage has not continued or there’s agreements to waive Paid Family Medical Leave that are not legal, we would look into those situations, and hopefully get the employer to correct those mistakes,” he said.
After the presentation, Lonsdale Chiropractic Owner and state Sen. Bill Lieske offered his ear to anyone with questions or concerns on the new laws.
“I sit on the Labor Committee so I heard this bill,” said the Republican representing the Lonsdale area. “I heard all the other labor bills that go through. Tore them apart slash put them together, depending on how you want to describe it. I generally was the one trying to tear them apart, a little bit.
“You know, there’s a lot of things in there that, yes, are good. They’re helping employees. The problem is that the employer side generally got beat up pretty bad. So if there’s things that you’re worried about, things that you want to know, ‘Am I doing this right? Am I not doing this right?’ I’d be happy to try and help you answer those questions.”
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