Topic
Leave and time off
Earned sick and safe time, paid leave, pregnancy and parenting leave, and the civic absences the statutes name.
Superior National Forest — A still pond. Photo: Dave Madgett Photograph: Still marsh pond reflecting pines and blue sky in the Superior National Forest.
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Minnesota earned sick and safe time covers your family, and an attendance point charged for using it is unlawful by name
Minn. Stat. § 181.9446 gives every covered Minnesota employee one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Section 181.9447, subd. 1, lists care of a family member as a covered use, and subd. 6(b) makes it unlawful for an absence control policy or attendance point system to count that leave as an absence.
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The FMLA Has Three Gates Minnesota's Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Does Not — 12 Months, 1,250 Hours, and 50 Employees Within 75 Miles
29 U.S.C. § 2611 conditions FMLA leave on 12 months of employment, 1,250 hours of service in the prior 12 months, and an employer with 50 or more employees — with a further rule excluding an employee at a worksite where fewer than 50 employees work within 75 miles. The leave itself is 12 workweeks and, under § 2612(c), may consist of unpaid leave. Minnesota's pregnancy and parenting leave has none of those conditions, and Minn. Stat. § 181.943(a)(2) lets FMLA leave be counted against it.
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USERRA Has No Employer-Size Floor, No Length-of-Service Requirement, and No Statute of Limitations — and Congress Raised Its Damages on January 2, 2025
38 U.S.C. § 4303(4)(A) defines a USERRA employer without counting employees, § 4312 conditions reemployment on notice, a cumulative five-year limit with four categories of service that do not count against it, the fourth of them a list of six, and a reporting deadline set by the length of the service. Section 4327(b) provides that there is no limit on the period for filing. Minnesota's own military leave statutes — Minn. Stat. §§ 192.26 and 192.261 — are written for public officers and employees.
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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.
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A Minnesota employer with one employee owes pregnancy accommodations and 12 weeks of parenting leave — and FMLA leave can be counted against those 12 weeks
Minn. Stat. § 181.939, subd. 2, and § 181.940, subd. 3, both define 'employer' as an entity with one or more employees, so there is no size floor and no length-of-service requirement for Minnesota's 12-week pregnancy and parenting leave. Section 181.943 then permits that leave to be reduced by employer-provided paid leave and by FMLA leave taken for the same purpose, and Minn. Stat. § 268B.27, subd. 1, lets an employer run paid-leave benefits concurrently with it.
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Minnesota paid leave is not a new-parent program — bonding is one of six qualifying reasons, and the benefit is money, not job-protected weeks
Minnesota's paid family and medical leave benefits began January 1, 2026 under Minn. Stat. ch. 268B. Section 268B.06, subd. 1(a)(2), lists six qualifying reasons, of which bonding is one; the wage-replacement formula is in § 268B.04, subd. 3; and the job-protection rules — including a reinstatement right that attaches 90 calendar days from the date of hire — are in § 268B.09.
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Firing You Over Jury Duty Is Criminal Contempt in Minnesota — and Four Other Civic Absences the Legislature Protected by Name
Minn. Stat. § 593.50 bars an employer from depriving you of employment because you were summoned for jury service, makes a violation criminal contempt, and gives you a civil action you have only 30 days to bring. Voting time, election-judge service, precinct caucuses, and 16 hours of school conferences each sit in a different section, and the notice rules and the penalties are not the same from one to the next — twenty days' written notice to serve as an election judge, none at all to vote.
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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.