Minnesota’s New Paid Family & Medical Leave Law

During the 2023 legislative session, Minnesota became the latest state to offer statewide paid family and medical leave, providing partial wage replacement for eligible employees for 12–20 weeks in a 52-week period for medical leave, bonding, caring for a family member, safety leave, or a qualifying exigency leave.

The newly passed program comes as part of a series of sweeping and fundamental changes to Minnesota employment law made in the 2023 legislative session.

Quick Hits

Minnesota’s new law creates a paid family and medical leave program to provide partial wage replacement for employees for twelve to twenty weeks in a fifty-two-week period for medical leave, bonding, caring for a family member, safety leave, or a qualifying exigency leave.

Employees may begin taking paid leave in January 2026.

On May 25, 2023, Governor Tim Walz signed House File (HF) 2 into law to create a state paid family and medical leave program. The law provides employees with partial wage replacement for a minimum of twelve weeks, up to twenty weeks, of leave in a fifty-two-week period for medical leave, bonding with a new child, caring for a family member, safety leave, or a qualifying exigency leave.

The new law will go into effect on January 1, 2026, at which time employers will also be required to pay into the state fund.

Unlike the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the state law will apply to Minnesota employers of all sizes.

Paid Family and Medical Leave Program

HF 2 creates a paid family and medical leave program to be administered by the commissioner of Employment and Economic Development.

The law will provide employees with partial pay for leave when they are “unable to perform regular work due to a serious health condition, a qualifying exigency, safety leave, family care, bonding, or medical care relate to pregnancy.”

Types of Leave

Serious Health Condition

The law defines “serious health condition” as “a physical or mental illness, injury, impairment, condition, or substance use disorder that involves” either “inpatient care” or “continuing treatment or supervision by a health care provider.

“Inpatient care” means “an overnight stay in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility, including any period of incapacity, or any subsequent treatment in connection with such inpatient care.”

The continuing treatment must involve one of the following:

• a period of incapacity of seven or more days;
• incapacity due to pregnancy and medical care related to pregnancy, including prenatal care;
• incapacity for the treatment of a chronic health condition that requires periodic medical visits over an extended period of time;
  incapacity due to a chronic longer-term health condition “for which treatment may not be effective”; or
• a period of absences to receive multiple medical treatments, including recovery time.

Note that this definition of “continuing treatment” varies slightly from the definition in the FMLA, which, among other differences, applies to a period of incapacity of only three or more full, consecutive days.

Bonding Leave

Under the law, leave for “bonding” is defined as time spent with a biological, adoptive, or foster child “in conjunction with the child’s birth, adoption, or placement.”

Bonding leave eligibility ends within twelve months following the birth or placement of a child, except in cases where the “child must remain in the hospital longer than the mother,” in which case the leave must end within twelve months of the child leaving the hospital.

Additionally, bonding leave may be used prior to the placement or adoption of a child for employers to “attend counseling sessions,” “appear in court,” “consult with the attorney or doctors representing the birth parent,” “submit to a physical examination,” or “travel to another country to complete the adoption.”

Family Care Leave

The law will allow employees to take leave to care for a “family member” with a “serious health condition” or to care for a “family member who is a military member.”

Family members are defined broadly under the act as including:
(1) a spouse or domestic partner;
(2) a biological, adopted, foster child, or stepchild;
(3) a child with whom the applicant stands in loco parentis, is a legal guardian, or is a de facto parent;
(4) a sibling;
(5) a grandchild;
(6) a grandparent;
(7) a son-in-law or daughter-in-law; or
(8) “an individual who has a relationship with the applicant that creates the expectation and reliance that the applicant care for the individual, whether or not the applicant and the individual reside together.”

In contrast, the FMLA’s leave provisions to care for a family member only apply to a spouse, son, daughter, or parent.

Safety Leave

Employees will be allowed to take “safety leave” referring to leave related to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking of employees or employees’ family members.

Specifically, leave is allowed to “(1) seek medical attention related to the physical or psychological injury or disability cause by domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking; (2) obtain services from a victim services organization; (3) obtain psychological or other counseling; (4) seek relocation due to the domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking; or (5) seek legal advice or take legal action, including preparing for or participating in any civil or criminal legal proceeding related to, or resulting from, the domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking.”

Qualifying Exigency Leave

A “qualifying exigency” refers to “a military member’s active duty service or notice of an impending call or order to active duty in the United States armed forces.”

The reason for leave may include the need to provide care for the military member’s dependent, making financial or legal arrangements, attending counseling, attending military events or ceremonies, or spending time with a “family member during a rest and recuperation leave or following return from deployment,” or making arrangements related to the death of the military member.