With the start of the upcoming new Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) it is important for employers to ensure that they have included a provision for concurrent leave in both their employee handbook and the notice that the state requires to be given to all employees by December 1, 2025.
What is concurrent leave?
It is a provision that all periods of leaves, both paid and unpaid, will run concurrently, and that these different types of leave will run at the same time, not one after the other. This provision will prevent an employee from “stacking“ their available leave on top of any other leave to extend their total time off.
What is the interplay with other types of leave in Minnesota?
Employers cannot require employees to exhaust accrued Minnesota Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST), vacation, or personal time off before or while taking PFML. An employee can choose to use vacation pay, ESST, or paid time off in lieu of PFML (provided the employees is concurrently eligible) or to supplement PFML up to the amount of their normal wages. Employers may require, however, that leave taken under the PFML run concurrently with leave taken for the same purpose under the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Minnesota Parenting and Pregnant Leave law, provided that the leave is eligible for both. For employers that provide employees with wage replacement during their leave and the total amount of benefits under the PFML program and additional benefits, exceed the employees’ usual salary, the employee must refund the excess to the employer. If an employee receives both disability insurance benefits and PFML at the same time, the disability insurer may reduce the disability payments pursuant to the terms of the insurance policy.
Synergy HR is here to help employers work through and comply with these new challenges. Here is the link to the required state employee notice. Please call us if you have any questions.
