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Guide · 19 min read

Chapter 181 Names Eleven Leaves — Seven Have No Remedy Section, Organ-Donation Leave Reaches Only Public Employers, and the Blood-Donation Section Requires Nothing

Minnesota's employment chapter grants eleven separate leaves, enumerated here from the revisor's table of sections. The private action in Minn. Stat. § 181.944 and the commissioner's compliance order under Minn. Stat. § 177.27, subd. 4, reach only §§ 181.939 to 181.943 and §§ 181.9445 to 181.9448, so bone marrow, organ donation, blood donation, civil air patrol, both military-family leaves, and adoptive parent leave sit outside both. Minn. Stat. § 181.9456, subd. 1(c), defines the organ-donation employer as a governmental entity.

Nothing on this page is advice about your job, and no article can be. If you want your own facts looked at, a Minnesota employment attorney can do that — and several of the deadlines described on this site are short enough that waiting is itself a decision.

In this guide
  1. Enumerated from the table of sections, not from memory
  2. The table
  3. The two donation statutes are not the same statute
  4. The blood-donation section grants nothing
  5. The unpaid three, and the conditions attached to them
  6. Adoptive parent leave is a mirror, not an entitlement
  7. Where the remedies stop
  8. The repeal that replaced a use-rule with an accrual
  9. The sections that hold the group together
  10. Currency

Enumerated from the table of sections, not from memory

Chapter 181 is where most Minnesota leave law lives, and it accumulated one section at a time over forty years. The sections are not grouped, they do not share definitions, and the ones that look alike are not alike. Two employees donating human tissue in the same week are covered by two different statutes with two different employer definitions, and one of them is not covered at all.

Everything below was built by reading the revisor’s table of sections for chapter 181 end to end and then retrieving every section whose headnote names a leave or whose text was needed to say what the leave is worth. Eleven sections or ranges grant leave. They are listed once here, and the table that follows carries the same eleven:

Minn. Stat. § 181.92 (adoptive parents); § 181.939, subd. 2 (pregnancy accommodation, including temporary leave of absence); § 181.941 (pregnancy and parenting); § 181.9412 (school conference and activities); §§ 181.9445 to 181.9448 (earned sick and safe time); § 181.945 (bone marrow donation); § 181.9456 (organ donation); § 181.9458 (blood donation); § 181.946 (civil air patrol service); § 181.947 (immediate family member injured or killed in active service); and § 181.948 (military send-off and homecoming ceremonies).

Three entries in the same neighborhood grant nothing because they no longer exist. The table of sections carries “181.9413 MS 2022 [Repealed, 2023 c 53 art 12 s 8],” “181.9414 MS 2020 [Repealed, 1Sp2021 c 10 art 3 s 22],” and “181.9455 MS 2002 [Expired, 1Sp2001 c 4 art 2 s 9].”

And six sections retrieved for this page turned out to carry no leave, which is worth naming so the count above can be checked rather than trusted: § 181.940 is definitions for §§ 181.940 to 181.944; § 181.942 is the reinstatement right after a leave taken under another section; § 181.943 is the reduction rule; § 181.9435 gives the Division of Labor Standards its investigating role; § 181.9436 directs the division to develop a poster; and § 181.944 is the private remedy. Two military-adjacent sections elsewhere in the chapter also carry no leave: § 181.535, which bars asking a job applicant about National Guard or reserve status with intent to discriminate, and § 181.536, which requires a veterans’ benefits poster at an employer “with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees.”

The table

Leave Who is covered How much Paid Anti-retaliation clause in the section Reinstatement under § 181.942 Named in § 181.944 or § 177.27, subd. 4
Adoptive parents, § 181.92 An employer “who permits paternity or maternity time off to a biological father or mother” “The minimum period of this time off shall be four weeks,” or the employer’s shorter biological-parent period if it has one “with or without pay” Yes — “An employer shall not penalize an employee for requesting or obtaining time off according to this section.” No No
Pregnancy accommodation, § 181.939, subd. 2 Employer with one or more employees, subd. 2(e) “temporary leave of absence” is a listed reasonable accommodation; no fixed cap in the subdivision Not stated in the subdivision Yes — subd. 2(d) Yes — former position or comparable Yes — both
Pregnancy and parenting, § 181.941 Employer with one or more employees, § 181.940, subd. 3 Length “determined by the employee, but must not exceed 12 weeks, unless agreed to by the employer,” subd. 1(b) “unpaid leave of absence,” subd. 1(a) Yes — subd. 3 Yes — former position or comparable Yes — both
School conference and activities, § 181.9412 Employer with one or more employees, § 181.940, subd. 3 “up to a total of 16 hours during any 12-month period,” subd. 2 “Nothing in this section requires that the leave be paid,” subd. 3; employee may substitute accrued paid leave No Yes — former position, full stop Yes — § 181.944; § 177.27, subd. 4, lists “181.939 to 181.943”
Earned sick and safe time, §§ 181.9445 to 181.9448 Employee anticipated to work at least 80 hours in a year in Minnesota; four groups excluded, subd. 5(1)–(4); employer “who has one or more employees,” § 181.9445, subds. 5, 6 “a minimum of one hour . . . for every 30 hours worked up to a maximum of 48 hours . . . in a year,” § 181.9446(a) Paid, at the “base rate” defined in § 181.9445, subd. 4a Yes — § 181.9447, subd. 6 Yes — former position, full stop Yes — both
Bone marrow donation, § 181.945 Employer with “20 or more employees at at least one site”; employee averaging “20 or more hours per week,” subd. 1(b), (c) “may not exceed 40 work hours, unless agreed to by the employer,” subd. 2 Paid — “must grant paid leaves of absence,” subd. 2 Yes — subd. 3 No No
Organ donation, § 181.9456 Public employers only — “a state, county, city, town, school district, or other governmental subdivision that employs 20 or more employees”; employee averaging 20 or more hours per week, subd. 1(b), (c) “may not exceed 40 work hours for each donation, unless agreed to by the employer,” subd. 2 Paid — “must grant paid leaves of absence,” subd. 2 Yes — subd. 3 No No
Blood donation, § 181.9458 Not defined in the section None required. “An employer may grant paid leave from work to an employee to allow the employee to donate blood.” If granted, paid No No No
Civil air patrol, § 181.946 Definitions borrowed from § 181.945 — 20 or more employees at one site; employee averaging 20 or more hours per week “time spent rendering service as a member of the civil air patrol on the request and under the authority of the state or any of its political subdivisions,” subd. 2 “without pay,” subd. 2 No No No
Family member injured or killed in active service, § 181.947 Employer “having one or more employees”; “employee” expressly includes “a person, independent contractor, or person working for an independent contractor,” subd. 1(c), (d) “up to ten working days,” subd. 2 “without pay,” subd. 2 No No No
Military send-off or homecoming ceremony, § 181.948 Employer “having one or more employees”; employee “does not include an independent contractor,” subd. 1(c), (d) Employer may limit to the time necessary to attend, “not to exceed one day’s duration in any calendar year,” subd. 2 “without pay,” subd. 2 No No No

Seven of the eleven — adoptive parents, bone marrow, organ donation, blood donation, civil air patrol, and the two military-family sections — appear in neither remedy provision and in neither branch of the reinstatement statute. Five carry no anti-retaliation clause at all: school conference, blood donation, civil air patrol, and the two military-family sections.

The two donation statutes are not the same statute

Both were written in the same style. Both promise paid leave. Both cap it at 40 work hours. They diverge in one paragraph.

Minn. Stat. § 181.945, subd. 1(c), the bone marrow section:

“Employer” means a person or entity that employs 20 or more employees at at least one site and includes an individual, corporation, partnership, association, nonprofit organization, group of persons, state, county, town, city, school district, or other governmental subdivision.

Minn. Stat. § 181.9456, subd. 1(c), the organ donation section:

“Employer” means a state, county, city, town, school district, or other governmental subdivision that employs 20 or more employees.

The private forms of organization are in the first list and gone from the second. Subdivision 1(b) of § 181.9456 makes the same point from the employee’s side — an employee is a person who performs services for hire “for a public employer, for an average of 20 or more hours per week.” The words “for a public employer” are in the organ-donation definition and not in the bone-marrow one.

The claim: "Minnesota gives you paid leave to donate an organ."

Not if you work in the private sector. Minn. Stat. § 181.9456, subd. 2, does require an employer to "grant paid leaves of absence to an employee who seeks to undergo a medical procedure to donate an organ or partial organ to another person," capped at "40 work hours for each donation, unless agreed to by the employer." But subd. 1(c) defines the employer as "a state, county, city, town, school district, or other governmental subdivision that employs 20 or more employees," and subd. 1(b) defines the employee as one who performs services for hire "for a public employer, for an average of 20 or more hours per week." A private employer is not an employer under that section. The bone marrow section next to it, Minn. Stat. § 181.945, is the one that reaches private employment, and its own definition still requires "20 or more employees at at least one site" and an employee working "an average of 20 or more hours per week." Neither section is named in the remedies in Minn. Stat. § 181.944 or in the commissioner's compliance-order list in Minn. Stat. § 177.27, subd. 4.

The blood-donation section grants nothing

Minn. Stat. § 181.9458 is the whole section:

An employer may grant paid leave from work to an employee to allow the employee to donate blood.

The headnote the revisor publishes is “AUTHORIZATION FOR BLOOD DONATION LEAVE,” and the section does what the headnote says: it authorizes. There is no employer definition, no employee definition, no hour cap, no notice requirement, no anti-retaliation clause, and no remedy. An employer that says no has not violated it.

The claim: "There's a Minnesota law giving you paid time off to give blood."

There is a section, and it does not require an employer to do anything. Minn. Stat. § 181.9458 reads in full: "An employer may grant paid leave from work to an employee to allow the employee to donate blood." Every other leave in chapter 181 is written in a mandatory verb. "Must grant" in §§ 181.941, 181.945, 181.947, 181.9412, and 181.9456; "shall grant" in §§ 181.92, 181.946, and 181.948; "must provide" for the pregnancy accommodation in § 181.939, subd. 2; and an accrual the employee earns by operation of § 181.9446(a) rather than a grant at all. This one uses "may," and it is the employer who may. Compare the three donation and civil-air-patrol sections on that single word and the difference is the whole content of the section.

The unpaid three, and the conditions attached to them

Civil air patrol. Minn. Stat. § 181.946, subd. 2: “Unless the leave would unduly disrupt the operations of the employer, an employer shall grant a leave of absence without pay to an employee for time spent rendering service as a member of the civil air patrol on the request and under the authority of the state or any of its political subdivisions.” Subdivision 1 is one sentence and it is the whole of the coverage rule: “For purposes of this section, ‘employee’ and ‘employer’ have the meanings given them in section 181.945.” A size floor that is nowhere in the section’s own text is imported by that cross-reference.

A family member injured or killed. Minn. Stat. § 181.947, subd. 2: “An employer must grant up to ten working days of a leave of absence without pay to an employee whose immediate family member, as a member of the United States armed forces, has been injured or killed while engaged in active service.” Notice is what is practicable, subd. 3, and subd. 4 permits the leave to “be reduced by any period of paid leave provided by the employer.” Its definition of “employee” is the widest in the chapter: “a person, independent contractor, or person working for an independent contractor who performs services for compensation, in whatever form, for an employer.” Subdivision 1(e) defines “immediate family member” as “a person’s parent, child, grandparents, siblings, or spouse.”

A send-off or a homecoming. Minn. Stat. § 181.948, subd. 2, grants unpaid leave to an employee whose immediate family member “has been ordered into active service in support of a war or other national emergency,” and then lets the employer “limit the amount of leave provided under this subdivision to the actual time necessary for the employee to attend a send-off or homecoming ceremony for the mobilized service member, not to exceed one day’s duration in any calendar year.” The same “unduly disrupt” condition governs the whole obligation.

Two things about that pair repay attention. The list of relatives is not the same: § 181.947, subd. 1(e), reaches a parent, child, grandparent, sibling, or spouse, while § 181.948, subd. 1(e), reaches “a person’s grandparent, parent, legal guardian, sibling, child, grandchild, spouse, fiance, or fiancee.” And § 181.948, subd. 1(c), excludes an independent contractor where § 181.947, subd. 1(c), expressly includes one. These sections were enacted by the same act — both History lines read “2006 c 273” — and they still do not match.

A different Minnesota section, outside chapter 181, gives family members of service members two consecutive days or six days a year of unpaid leave for departure and return ceremonies, readiness events, and reintegration programs. That is Minn. Stat. § 192.325, and it is set out with the rest of the military provisions in military leave: USERRA and Minnesota.

Adoptive parent leave is a mirror, not an entitlement

Minn. Stat. § 181.92 is a single paragraph and it is conditional on what the employer already does:

An employer who permits paternity or maternity time off to a biological father or mother shall, upon request, grant time off, with or without pay, to an adoptive father or mother. The minimum period of this time off shall be four weeks, or, if the employer has an established policy of time off for a biological parent which sets a period of time off of less than four weeks, that period of time shall be the minimum period for an adoptive parent. The period of time off shall, at the direction of the adoptive parent, begin before, or at the time of, the child’s placement in the adoptive parent’s home, and shall be for the purpose of arranging the child’s placement or caring for the child after placement. An employer shall not penalize an employee for requesting or obtaining time off according to this section.

An employer that gives biological parents nothing owes an adoptive parent nothing under this section. What that employer does owe is the twelve weeks in § 181.941, which by its own terms reaches “a biological or adoptive parent in conjunction with the birth or adoption of a child” — see pregnancy and parenting leave. Section 181.92 dates to 1983 and its History line is one entry: “1983 c 266 s 1.”

Where the remedies stop

Minn. Stat. § 181.944, the private action, in full:

In addition to any other remedies provided by law, a person injured by a violation of sections 181.172, paragraph (a) or (d), 181.939 to 181.943, and 181.9445 to 181.9448 may bring a civil action to recover any and all damages recoverable at law, together with costs and disbursements, including reasonable attorney’s fees, and may receive injunctive and other equitable relief as determined by a court.

Minn. Stat. § 177.27, subd. 4, the administrative route, authorizes the commissioner of labor and industry to order compliance with a long list that also reaches chapters 177, 179, and 268B. Its chapter 181 entries are a contiguous run inside that list, and they read “181.02, 181.03, 181.031, 181.032, 181.10, 181.101, 181.11, 181.13, 181.14, 181.145, 181.15, 181.165, 181.172, paragraph (a) or (d), 181.214 to 181.217, 181.275, subdivision 2a, 181.635, 181.64, 181.722, 181.723, 181.79, 181.85 to 181.89, 181.939 to 181.943, 181.9445 to 181.9448, 181.987, 181.991,” and the only leave sections among them are the same two ranges § 181.944 names. Subdivision 7 then makes part of the consequence mandatory on a finding of violation: the commissioner “shall order the employer to pay to the aggrieved parties back pay, gratuities, and compensatory damages, less any amount actually paid to the aggrieved parties by the employer, and for an additional equal amount as liquidated damages,” with “an additional civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation for each employee” against a repeated or willful violator.

Two ranges, named twice, in the same shape both times. Sections 181.92, 181.945, 181.9456, 181.9458, 181.946, 181.947, and 181.948 are in neither.

The claim: "If it's in chapter 181, you can sue over it."

Seven of the chapter's eleven leaves are outside every remedy the chapter contains. Minn. Stat. § 181.944 gives a civil action for a violation of "sections 181.172, paragraph (a) or (d), 181.939 to 181.943, and 181.9445 to 181.9448," and Minn. Stat. § 177.27, subd. 4, names those same two ranges among the sections the commissioner of labor and industry may reach by compliance order. Minn. Stat. §§ 181.92, 181.945, 181.9456, 181.9458, 181.946, 181.947, and 181.948 appear in neither. Minn. Stat. § 181.942, the reinstatement section, has the same boundary: subd. 1(a) names leave "under section 181.939 or 181.941" and "under section 181.9412 or sections 181.9445 to 181.9448," and subd. 2 reaches leave "under sections 181.939 to 181.944." Two of those seven sections nonetheless contain express anti-retaliation clauses — § 181.945, subd. 3, and § 181.9456, subd. 3 — and § 181.92 contains a no-penalty sentence. What chapter 181 does not say is what happens next. Minn. Stat. § 645.241 supplies a general default where a statute prohibits an act and "no penalty for the violation of the same shall be imposed in any statute," and the legislature has expressly switched that default off in two employment sections, Minn. Stat. § 181.535 and Minn. Stat. § 192.325, which shows it knows how. No Minnesota appellate decision is cited on this page applying § 645.241 to any leave section in chapter 181, and this page does not predict the answer.

The repeal that replaced a use-rule with an accrual

Anyone working from a source written before 2024 will find a Minnesota section that let an employee use the employer’s own sick leave for a relative. It is gone. The revisor’s table of sections carries “181.9413 MS 2022 [Repealed, 2023 c 53 art 12 s 8].”

The 2022 edition of § 181.9413 shows what it did. Paragraph (a) let an employee “use personal sick leave benefits provided by the employer for absences due to an illness of or injury to the employee’s child . . . adult child, spouse, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent,” on the same terms as for the employee’s own illness, and applied “only to personal sick leave benefits payable to the employee from the employer’s general assets.” Paragraph (b) added safety leave. Paragraph (c) let the employer cap use for relatives other than a child at “no less than 160 hours in any 12-month period.”

That was a rule about how existing employer-provided leave could be spent. Its successor is a rule about leave the employer has to create. Laws 2023, chapter 53, article 12, enacted §§ 181.9445 through 181.9448 in sections 4 through 7 and repealed § 181.9413 in section 8 of the same article — the History lines of the four new sections and the table-of-sections repealer entry all point at article 12. Minn. Stat. § 181.9448, subd. 1(a), then reaches back over employer policies: “All paid time off and other paid leave made available to an employee by an employer in excess of the minimum amount required in section 181.9446 for absences from work due to personal illness or injury, but not including short-term or long-term disability or other salary continuation benefits, must meet or exceed the minimum standards and requirements provided in sections 181.9445 to 181.9448, except for section 181.9446.” The uses, the notice cap, the documentation trigger, and the attendance-point prohibition are covered in earned sick and safe time.

The sections that hold the group together

Three sections in the middle of the chapter do no granting and are quoted constantly because of it.

Minn. Stat. § 181.940 supplies “employee,” “employer,” and “child” for §§ 181.940 to 181.944 — and only for that range. Its one-employee definition of “employer” does not reach § 181.945, § 181.9456, § 181.946, § 181.947, § 181.948, or § 181.92, each of which either writes its own definition or borrows one from § 181.945.

Minn. Stat. § 181.942 is reinstatement, and it draws a line inside one paragraph: leave under § 181.939 or § 181.941 returns the employee “in the employee’s former position or in a position of comparable duties, number of hours, and pay,” while leave “under section 181.9412 or sections 181.9445 to 181.9448” returns the employee “in the employee’s former position.” Paragraph (b) is the layoff exception. Subdivision 2 restores the pay rate “plus any automatic adjustments in the employee’s pay scale that occurred during leave period” and preserves “all accrued preleave benefits of employment and seniority, as if there had been no interruption in service.”

Minn. Stat. § 181.943 is the reduction rule, and it is written for one leave only — the length of leave “provided under section 181.941” may be reduced by employer-provided paid leave and by FMLA leave taken for the same purpose. It says nothing about the donation, civil air patrol, or military-family sections, and this page does not read it onto them. What § 181.945, subd. 4, and § 181.9456, subd. 4, do say for themselves is that the section “does not prevent an employer from providing leave . . . in addition to leave allowed under this section” and “does not affect an employee’s rights with respect to any other employment benefit.”

Two more administer rather than grant. Section 181.9435, subd. 1, gives the Division of Labor Standards the job of receiving complaints “relating to sections 181.172, paragraph (a) or (d), and 181.939 to 181.9436” and investigating them informally, with a two-business-day contact requirement and a ten-day investigation requirement for complaints under § 181.939. Section 181.9436 directs the division to develop “an educational poster stating employees’ rights under sections 181.939 to 181.9448” and to make it available to employers on request. Note the ranges in those two sections: one ends at 181.9436, the other at 181.9448. Neither reaches § 181.945 or beyond.

Currency

The revisor currently publishes the 2025 Minnesota Statutes edition. The History lines read: § 181.92, “1983 c 266 s 1”; § 181.939, “1998 c 369 s 1; 2014 c 239 art 4 s 3; 1Sp2021 c 10 art 3 s 3; 2023 c 53 art 11 s 27; 2024 c 110 art 2 s 9”; § 181.940, “1987 c 359 s 1; 1990 c 577 s 1; 1991 c 268 s 1; 2014 c 239 art 3 s 1; 2023 c 53 art 11 s 28,29”; § 181.941, “1987 c 359 s 2; 1990 c 577 s 2; 2014 c 239 art 3 s 2; 2023 c 53 art 11 s 30; 2024 c 110 art 2 s 10”; § 181.9412, “1990 c 577 s 3; 1992 c 438 s 2; 1996 c 341 s 1; 1996 c 408 art 11 s 4; 1999 c 205 art 5 s 21; 2002 c 380 art 5 s 1; 2024 c 80 art 5 s 7”; § 181.942, “1987 c 359 s 3; 1990 c 577 s 5; 2023 c 53 art 11 s 32; art 12 s 2”; § 181.943, “1987 c 359 s 4; 1988 c 659 s 1; 1990 c 577 s 6; 2014 c 239 art 3 s 5; 2024 c 110 art 2 s 11”; § 181.9435, “1992 c 438 s 3; 2003 c 128 art 11 s 8; 2014 c 239 art 4 s 4; 2023 c 53 art 1 s 13”; § 181.9436, “1992 c 438 s 4; 2003 c 128 art 11 s 9; 2023 c 53 art 1 s 14; art 11 s 33; art 12 s 3”; § 181.944, “1987 c 359 s 5; 1990 c 577 s 7; 2014 c 239 art 4 s 5; 2023 c 53 art 13 s 5”; § 181.945, “1990 c 536 s 2; 2023 c 53 art 11 s 34”; § 181.9456, “2006 c 220 s 1; 2023 c 53 art 11 s 35”; § 181.9458, “2008 c 318 art 1 s 12”; § 181.946, “1997 c 20 s 1”; § 181.947, “2006 c 273 s 3”; § 181.948, “2006 c 273 s 4”; § 645.241, “(10047) RL s 4859; 2014 c 312 art 6 s 6; 2015 c 65 art 6 s 22.”

The revisor’s table of Minnesota Statutes affected by the 2026 Regular Session was queried one exact section at a time and every returned row was read on its Session column. No section in the enumeration above shows a 2026 action. Two show 2025 actions, both in the earned sick and safe time range: § 181.9447, subdivisions 2, 3, and 4, amended by Laws 2025, 1st Special Session, chapter 6, article 5, sections 10 through 12, and § 181.9448, subdivision 1, amended by section 13 of the same article. Section 181.92 returns “No Records Found” across the whole range the table covers. Section 177.27 shows a 2025 action at subdivision 5, Laws 2025, 1st Special Session, chapter 6, article 5, section 6 — not subdivision 4 or 7, which are the subdivisions cited here.

The chapter’s own page carries the revisor’s 2026-session notice, and it names two sections: “181.101 has been amended by Chapter 106, Article 15, Section 5” and “181.211 subd. 10 has been amended by Chapter 88, Article 1, Section 85.” Neither section appears on this page.

This page describes the machinery. Whether a particular employer has 20 employees at a site, whether a particular relative is an immediate family member under one of these definitions, and whether a particular absence falls inside a particular section are questions about facts and records, and applying these sections to them is not what this page does.

Common questions

What leaves does Minnesota's employment chapter actually give you?
Reading the revisor's table of sections for Minn. Stat. ch. 181 and then each section it names, eleven leaves are granted: pregnancy accommodation leave, Minn. Stat. § 181.939, subd. 2; pregnancy and parenting leave, § 181.941; school conference and activities leave, § 181.9412; earned sick and safe time, §§ 181.9445 to 181.9448; bone marrow donation leave, § 181.945; organ donation leave, § 181.9456; blood donation leave, § 181.9458; civil air patrol leave, § 181.946; leave for an immediate family member injured or killed in active service, § 181.947; leave to attend a military send-off or homecoming ceremony, § 181.948; and adoptive parent leave, § 181.92. Two further sections in the range were repealed — § 181.9413 by Laws 2023, ch. 53, art. 12, § 8, and § 181.9414 by Laws 2021, 1st Spec. Sess., ch. 10, art. 3, § 22 — and § 181.9455 is marked expired.
Does Minnesota give private employees paid leave to donate an organ?
No. Minn. Stat. § 181.9456, subd. 2, does require paid leave of up to 40 work hours for each donation, but subd. 1(c) defines 'employer' for that section as 'a state, county, city, town, school district, or other governmental subdivision that employs 20 or more employees,' and subd. 1(b) defines 'employee' as a person who performs services for hire 'for a public employer, for an average of 20 or more hours per week.' Bone marrow donation is the section that does reach private employment: Minn. Stat. § 181.945, subd. 1(c), defines 'employer' as 'a person or entity that employs 20 or more employees at at least one site,' naming private forms of organization alongside governmental ones, and subd. 2 requires paid leave not exceeding 40 work hours.
Do I get time off to donate blood in Minnesota?
The statute grants nothing. Minn. Stat. § 181.9458 is one sentence: 'An employer may grant paid leave from work to an employee to allow the employee to donate blood.' The verb is 'may.' The headnote calls the section an authorization, and the section authorizes rather than requires. It carries no definition of employer, no cap, no notice rule, and no anti-retaliation clause.
Can I be fired for taking bone marrow donation leave in Minnesota?
The section prohibits it, and the prohibition has no remedy written anywhere in chapter 181. Minn. Stat. § 181.945, subd. 3, provides that an employer 'shall not discharge, discipline, penalize, interfere with, threaten, restrain, coerce, or otherwise retaliate or discriminate against an employee for requesting or obtaining a leave of absence as provided by this section.' But the private civil action in Minn. Stat. § 181.944 reaches only 'sections 181.172, paragraph (a) or (d), 181.939 to 181.943, and 181.9445 to 181.9448,' and the commissioner's compliance-order authority in Minn. Stat. § 177.27, subd. 4, lists the same two ranges. Section 181.945 is in neither. The same is true of §§ 181.9456, 181.9458, 181.946, 181.947, 181.948, and 181.92.
What happened to Minnesota's law about using sick leave for a sick relative?
It was repealed and replaced. Minn. Stat. § 181.9413 permitted an employee to use 'personal sick leave benefits provided by the employer' for an illness or injury of a listed relative and for safety leave, and the revisor's table of sections now carries the entry 'MS 2022 [Repealed, 2023 c 53 art 12 s 8].' The same article of the same act created earned sick and safe time: the History lines for §§ 181.9445 through 181.9448 read '2023 c 53 art 12 s 4' through 's 7.' The successor is an accrual entitlement rather than a rule about how employer-provided sick leave may be used, and Minn. Stat. § 181.9448, subd. 1(a), now requires paid time off made available in excess of the statutory minimum for personal illness or injury to 'meet or exceed the minimum standards and requirements provided in sections 181.9445 to 181.9448, except for section 181.9446.'

Sources checked September 11, 2026. Citations independently verified against the primary source September 11, 2026.

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