A full Minnesota House Chamber is pictured Feb. 6, 2025. Photo by Michele Jokinen/House Public Information Services.
The Democratic-Farmer-Labor members of the Minnesota House are expected Monday to vote down a Republican bill that would delay the state’s new paid leave program by one year.
Minnesota’s paid leave program will launch in 2026, guaranteeing Minnesota workers 12 weeks of paid family leave and 12 weeks of paid medical leave per year, capped at 20 weeks total in a single year.
Republicans, who are currently in control of the lower chamber 67-66, are taking up a bill (HF 11) on the House floor that would delay Minnesota’s paid leave program by one year. Needing 68 votes to pass, the bill is expected to fail absent any DFL votes.
Republicans, like the chief author of the delay bill Rep. Dave Baker of Willmar, say postponement is needed to allow businesses more time to comply with the law, and some school districts have also expressed reservations about it.
Democrats said the delay proposal is merely a ploy to cancel the entire program.
“Minnesotans have waited long enough. There’s no reason to delay paid family medical leave. Republicans are just making it clear that they don’t want a delay, they want a full repeal,” House DFL leader Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said last week at a press conference in favor of paid leave.
Last month, House Republicans introduced a bill to fully repeal the paid leave program, but it has yet to receive a hearing.
Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development says the delay isn’t needed, and it’s ready to administer benefits when the program becomes active in 2026.
Paid leave will launch with a 0.88% payroll tax in January 2026, which is 25% higher than what was originally proposed two years ago when the Legislature passed the law.
DEED will do rate adjustments each year after receiving an annual actuarial analysis to determine the solvency of the program. Employees will pay at maximum half of the payroll tax — 0.44% of their taxable wages in the first year — but an employer can choose to assume some of their employees’ cost.