The Minnesota legislative session and special session ending in June 2025 resulted in certain amendments to existing employment laws of which employers should be aware. Below is a summary of these amendments under the Omnibus Jobs, Labor Economic Development Policy, and Appropriations bill (SF 17), which was signed into law on June 14, 2025:
Rest breaks – Amendments to Minn. Stat. § 177.253, Subds. 1 and 3
- Effective January 1, 2026.
- The statute was amended to require that “an employer must allow each employee adequate time from work a rest break of at least 15 minutes or enough time to utilize the nearest convenient restroom, whichever is longer, within each four consecutive hours of work.” (Previously, this section merely stated that an employer must allow each employee “adequate time.”)
- A remedies provision was added so that now, if an employer violates the rest break law and related rules, “the employer is liable to the employee for the rest break time that should have been allowed at the employee’s regular rate of pay, plus an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.”
Meal break – Amendments to Minn. Stat. § 177.254, Subds. 1 and 2
- Effective January 1, 2026.
- The statute was modified to require that “an employer must allow each employee who is working for six or more consecutive hours a meal break of at least 30 minutes.” (Previously, this section stated that an employer must “permit” an employee who is working for “eight” or more consecutive hours “sufficient time to eat” a meal.)
- Takeaway: employers will need to ensure that their meal break practices and policies are compliant with the amendments.
Earned Sick and Safe Time (“ESST”) – Amendments to Minn. Stat. § 181.9447, Subds. 2, 3, and 4 and § 181.9448, Subd. 1(j)
- Effective January 1, 2026.
- Employee notices of use of ESST can now be as “reasonably required by the employer.” (Previously, this section stated that employers could require notice from employees on the usage of ESST “as soon as practicable.”)
- Employers can now require documentation if ESST is used for more than “two” consecutive scheduled workdays. (Previously, this section previously stated employers could require documentation if ESST was used for more than “three” consecutive days.) A sentence was added to the ESST statute to clarify that it “does not prohibit an employee from voluntarily seeking or trading shifts with a replacement worker to cover the hours the employee uses as earned sick and safe time.”
- The following was added to allow the employer the option to advance ESST hours based on an employee’s projected work hours for the remaining portion of the accrual year: “An employer is permitted to advance earned sick and safe time to an employee based on the number of hours the employee is anticipated to work for the remaining portion of an accrual year. If the advanced amount is less than the amount the employee would have accrued based on the actual hours worked, the employer must provide additional earned sick and safe time to make up the difference.”
- Takeaway: Employers will need to ensure that their ESST policies are compliant with all of the above amendments, as well as potentially making changes in how they administer their ESST policies (and potentially relative to other attendance and leave policies) as it applies to notice, scheduling, and advancing ESST hours.
Minnesota Paid Leave Law – Amendment to Minn. Stat. § 268B.14, Subd. 7
- Minnesota Paid Leave law will go into effect January 1, 2026; this amendment is effective June 15, 2025, in advance of the Minnesota Paid Leave law going into effect.
- The maximum premium levied by the Department of Employment and Economic Development (“DEED”) was reduced from 1.2% of taxable wages to 1.1%.
- Takeaway: this minor provision does not have a significant effect on employers but shows that Minnesota Paid Leave will start getting paid out in January 2026, although there are requirements that still have to be met by employers before that start date.
Several proposed bills did not make it into law. This included a potential delay of Minnesota Paid Leave, additional employer exemptions for employers under Minnesota Paid Leave and Earned Sick and Safe Time, and the return of non-competes for certain highly-compensated employees.
FMJ’s HR & Employment Law Practice Group is available to help review your company’s employment practices, draft new policies and practices, and create and implement strategies for future compliance. If you are interested in connecting with the team to discuss questions or concerns about any of these new changes, or any other HR and Employment law matters, please contact Shannon McDonough, Natolie Hochhausen, or V. John Ella.
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