As of this writing (March 5, 2026) Minnesota’s Paid Family Medical Leave (“PFML”) program (Minnesota Statutes Chapter 268B) has been in operation for two months.  Here are some of the challenges our clients are seeing and how to overcome them or at least minimize them. 1. Private Plan Employees Applying to the State Program. Yes,...

In the 2023 Legislative Session, Minnesota created Chapter 187, the Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program (“MN SCRP”).  This was Chapter 46 of House File 782.  With the many sweeping employment law changes and new regulations slammed through by the DFL trifecta, MN SCRP got little attention. But now that its implementation is (sort of) approaching,...

(This is an emerging issue as of the date of this writing—April 25, 2025.  Further legislation, rulemaking, administrative interpretation, litigation, or smarter attorneys may change or improve upon the analysis below.) As we approach January 1, 2026—the date on which Minnesota’s Paid Family Leave Act (Minnesota Statutes Chapter 268B) takes effect—employers and employment attorneys are...

Editor’s Note: This article was written on March 12, 2025. The statutes at issue are currently being debated by the legislature. Future legislation and caselaw may alter the decisions discussed herein. When the Minnesota Legislature rolled out Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) in 2023, most employers and HR professionals focused on the benefits the...

Immediate Action Items for Employers: Recalculate “base rate” for any employee paid on anything other than a standard wage. If you presently scrutinize employees’ requests for ESST, consider approving it as a matter of course. Aling use of ESST to the increments in which you pay. Ensure your paystub includes the necessary information. Make a plan to keep pay and ESST information for 3 years. If you are offering paid leave above the ESST minimums, ensure that you are offering it on the same terms as ESST; or consider ceasing to offer excess.

I was recently asked to speak about employment law issues at a conference for human resource professionals. Registrants were polled in advance about what they’d like covered, and “DEI” was a top response. (DEI stands for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion;” DEI means . . . well . . . the definition of DEI is part of...

“Chevron deference” and the end of Chevron deference has been all over the news since the United States Supreme Court published its June 28, 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimaondo, Secretary of Commerce.  As with most media coverage of the law, most of the reporting I’ve seen has been overly simplistic at best,...