Minnesota FMLA Requirements: Eligibility, Leave Time, and Pay

Minnesota workers get leave protection from three stacked sources: the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which guarantees up to 12 unpaid weeks a year at larger employers; the state Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Act, which adds up to 12 weeks for birth, adoption, and pregnancy-related conditions at employers of any size; and Minnesota’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program, which began paying wage-replacement benefits on January 1, 2026. The FMLA requirements in Minnesota depend on which of these laws reaches you, and the answer often differs from one worker to the next even inside the same company.

Which Employers Have to Provide Leave

Federal FMLA reaches private-sector employers that have 50 or more employees for at least 20 workweeks in the current or preceding year. Public agencies and public or private elementary and secondary schools are covered no matter their headcount.¹

Minnesota’s Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Act applies to every employer with one or more employees, including corporations, nonprofits, government subdivisions, and sole proprietors.² A five-person Minnesota company must still offer up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for birth, adoption, prenatal care, or pregnancy-related health conditions.³

The state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program under Chapter 268B covers virtually all Minnesota employment. Employers fund it through payroll premiums and must participate unless they have an approved private plan.⁴

Which Employees Qualify

Federal FMLA

You have to clear three thresholds. You must have worked for your current employer for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutive), logged at least 1,250 actual hours in the 12 months immediately before leave starts, and work at a site with at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius.⁵⁶

The 75-mile rule is the one that catches people. You can work for a company with thousands of employees nationwide and still fall outside federal FMLA if your particular office is too small and too isolated. The 1,250-hour count includes only actual work hours; paid time off, holidays, and prior leave don’t count. Eligibility is determined as of the day leave begins, so if you’re close to the 12-month mark, you can request leave that starts after you cross it.

Minnesota’s State Laws

The Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Act has no minimum tenure, no minimum hours, and no employer-size threshold. Minnesota’s Department of Labor and Industry states that employees are eligible regardless of the size of their employer and the amount of time they’ve worked there.⁷ For part-time workers, new hires, and anyone at a small employer, that’s the real backstop.

For paid leave benefits under Chapter 268B, you need to have earned at least $3,900 in wages over the prior year. That income can come from one job or be combined across multiple employers.

Reasons That Qualify

Federal FMLA gives you up to 12 workweeks in a 12-month period for any of these:⁸

Birth of a child, or placement of a child for adoption or foster care, including bonding time.
Caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition.
Your own serious health condition that makes you unable to do your job.
A qualifying exigency arising from a spouse’s, child’s, or parent’s covered active-duty military service.

“Serious health condition” is broader than people assume. It covers chronic conditions like diabetes or epilepsy with occasional flare-ups, long-term conditions needing ongoing medical supervision, and any situation involving an overnight stay at a hospital or treatment facility.⁹

A separate, larger entitlement applies to military caregivers: up to 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period to care for a current servicemember or recent veteran (discharged within the past five years) with a serious injury or illness, if you’re the spouse, child, parent, or next of kin. That 26-week cap includes any other FMLA leave you take in the same period rather than adding to it.⁶

Minnesota’s Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Act covers biological and adoptive parents following birth or adoption, and prenatal care or pregnancy-related health conditions.³

How Much Time You Actually Get

Federal FMLA caps standard leave at 12 workweeks per 12-month period, with the 26-week military caregiver exception noted above. Minnesota’s Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Act also caps at 12 weeks.

When both laws apply to the same event, they generally run at the same time. Twelve weeks after the birth of a child count against both your federal FMLA bank and your state pregnancy and parenting entitlement; you don’t get 24 weeks by stacking them. Situations where only one law applies can create more total time, but concurrent running is the default.

Leave doesn’t always have to come in one block. When a serious health condition makes it medically necessary, you can take FMLA leave intermittently or on a reduced schedule without your employer’s approval, though you need to make a reasonable effort to schedule foreseeable treatments around the employer’s operations.¹⁰ Intermittent bonding leave for a newborn or newly placed child is different: the employer has to agree to that schedule, unless the child has a serious health condition.

Getting Paid During Leave

Federal FMLA and Minnesota’s Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Act are both unpaid. The change in 2026 is Minnesota’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program, which pays wage-replacement benefits while you’re on leave.⁴

The weekly benefit uses a tiered formula tied to the statewide average weekly wage:¹¹

Wages up to $711.50 per week (half the state average): 90% replacement.
Wages between $711.50 and $1,423 per week: 66% replacement on the portion above $711.50.
Wages above $1,423 per week: 55% replacement on the portion above $1,423.

The maximum anyone can receive is $1,423 per week, which equals the current state average weekly wage. Lower-wage workers get a higher percentage of their pay back by design; most workers end up with practical replacement rates somewhere between 66% and 90%.

Funding comes from a payroll premium set at 0.88% of wages for 2026.¹² Employers must cover at least half, with the rest coming out of employee paychecks. Small employers pay a reduced rate equal to 75% of the standard premium, and their minimum employer share drops to 25%. The rate can be adjusted year to year but can never exceed 1.1% of taxable wages.⁴

You can also layer accrued paid time off onto unpaid FMLA so you keep receiving a paycheck. Employers can require you to use accrued vacation, sick, or personal time concurrently with FMLA.¹³ Either way, the paid leave runs alongside FMLA rather than extending it. Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time adds another source: employees accrue one hour per 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year, and qualify if they’re expected to work at least 80 hours in a year for a Minnesota employer.¹⁴

How to Request Leave

When leave is foreseeable, such as a scheduled surgery or an expected due date, federal regulations require at least 30 days’ advance notice.¹⁵ For emergencies, notify your employer as soon as practical. The state Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Act similarly allows the employer to require reasonable notice of when leave will start and how long it’s expected to last.³

For leave tied to a serious health condition, your employer can require medical certification from your healthcare provider. The Department of Labor publishes optional forms (WH-380-E for your own condition, WH-380-F for a family member’s), but a letter on your doctor’s letterhead containing the same information works too.¹⁶ The certification should state when the condition started, how long it’s expected to last, and enough medical information to confirm the condition qualifies. Incomplete certifications are the most common reason for delays, and your employer must give you 15 days to cure deficiencies before denying the request.

Within five business days of your request, your employer has to issue an eligibility notice telling you whether you meet the requirements.¹⁷ Once it has enough information to decide whether the leave qualifies, it must issue a designation notice within five business days formally approving or denying the request.¹⁸ If the employer doubts your certification, it can require a second opinion from a different provider at its own expense. If the two conflict, a third opinion from a mutually agreed provider is binding.

Health Insurance While You’re Out

Your employer has to maintain your group health coverage during FMLA leave on the same terms as if you were still actively working.¹⁹ If the plan covered your family before leave, it still has to. If the employer was paying a share of the premium, that share continues.

You still owe your portion. Because you may not be receiving a paycheck during unpaid leave, common arrangements include paying on the same schedule as payroll deductions, prepaying before leave starts, or catching up after you return. Your employer cannot require prepayment unless you agree. If your premium payment is more than 30 days late, the employer can terminate coverage, but only after sending written notice at least 15 days before coverage drops.²⁰ Miss that 15-day notice window and the employer cannot cancel coverage, regardless of nonpayment.

Coming Back to Your Job

When leave ends, your employer must restore you to your original position or an equivalent one with the same pay, benefits, and working conditions.⁸ “Equivalent” means genuinely equivalent: same shift, same location, same responsibilities, same advancement opportunities. Reinstating you at the same salary but in a dead-end role is a violation.

One narrow exception. Salaried employees in the highest-paid 10% of the workforce within 75 miles of their worksite can be classified as “key employees,” and the employer can potentially deny restoration if reinstating them would cause substantial and grievous economic injury to the business.²¹ The standard is high, and the employer must give specific written notices at specific points; skipping those steps forfeits the right to deny restoration.

If your leave was for your own serious health condition, the employer can require a fitness-for-duty certification before you return, provided it has a uniform policy and gave you a list of your job’s essential functions along with the designation notice at the start of leave.²² An employer that didn’t include this requirement in the original notice can’t add it when you come back.

If Your Employer Breaks the Rules

Employers violate FMLA by interfering with your right to take leave, retaliating against you for requesting it, or failing to restore your position. You have two routes.

File a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243. Complaints are confidential, and the employer cannot retaliate against you for filing or cooperating.²³

You can also sue in federal court. The statute of limitations is two years from the last violation, or three years if the violation was willful. Damages include lost wages and benefits, out-of-pocket costs, interest, and liquidated damages equal to the total of your losses plus interest, which effectively doubles your recovery unless the employer proves it acted in good faith with reasonable grounds for believing its conduct was lawful.²⁴ A court can also order reinstatement and promotion, and the employer pays your attorney’s fees if you win.

Minnesota’s paid leave statute carries its own penalties for employers that fail to meet notice and posting requirements: $50 per employee for a first violation, and $300 per employee for each subsequent one.⁴

1
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.104 – Covered Employer
2
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.940 – Definitions
3
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.941 – Pregnancy and Parenting Leave
4
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code Chapter 268B – Paid Family and Medical Leave
5
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.110 – Eligible Employee
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet – Using FMLA Leave Because of a Family Members Military Service
7
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Unpaid Pregnancy and Parental Leave, FMLA
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2612 – Leave Requirement
9
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.112 – Qualifying Reasons for Leave, General Rule
10
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions
11
Minnesota Paid Leave. Estimate Your Payments
12
Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Paid Leave Confirms Premium Rate, Remains on Track for Launch in 2026
13
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.207 – Substitution of Paid Leave
14
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Earned Sick and Safe Time
15
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.302 – Employee Notice Requirements for Foreseeable FMLA Leave
16
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Forms
17
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.300 – Employer Notice Requirements
18
U.S. Department of Labor. Designation Notice Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
19
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.209 – Maintenance of Group Health Plan Coverage
20
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Advisor – Employee Failure to Pay Health Plan Premium Payments
21
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Advisor – Key Employee
22
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.312 – Fitness-for-Duty Certification
23
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
24
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2617 – Enforcement