Minnesota 2025 Legislative Employment Law Updates

December 11, 2025  |  Kristin Kingsbury

The 2025 Minnesota legislature amended various employment law statutes. Here are some changes that are important for employers to know:

Mandatory Rest Breaks – Amendments to Minn. Stat. § 177.253 subd. 1 and 3:

The new rest break statute goes into effect on January 1, 2026, and requires employers to permit employees 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 worked. If the employer does not allow these rest breaks, the employer could be liable for the employee’s rest break time that should have been allowed at the employee’s regular rate, plus an additional equal amount in liquidated damages.

Mandatory Meal Breaks – Amendments to Minn. Stat. § 177.254 subd. 1, 2, and 4:

Effective January 1, 2026, employees working six or more consecutive hours must be allowed a meal break of at least 30 minutes. If the employer does not allow an employee to take meal breaks, the employer could be liable for the employee’s meal break time that should have been allowed at the employee’s regular rate, plus an additional equal amount in liquidated damages.

Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) – Amendments to Minn. Stat. § 181.9447 subd. 2, 3, and 4 and § 181.9448 subd. 1(j)

The following amendments went into effect on July 1, 2025:

• Employers may require employees to give notice of an unforeseeable need for use of earned sick or safe time “as reasonably required” by the employer.
• Employers may require reasonable documentation that earned sick and safe time is covered when an employee uses the earned time for more than two consecutive days.
• Clarification that the statute does not prohibit an employee from voluntarily seeking a replacement worker to cover hours the employee uses as ESST (or trading shifts). It continues to be the case that an employer cannot require this, however.

Effective January 1, 2026, employers are permitted to advance ESST to an employee based on the number of hours the employee is anticipated to work for the remaining portion of the accrual year. The amendment further will provide that “[i]f the advanced amount is less than the amount the employee would have accrued based on the actual hours worked, the employer must provide additional ESST to make up the difference.” The amendment does not provide guidance on what should happen if the advanced amount is more than the amount the employee accrues based on actual hours worked.

Minnesota Paid Family Leave – Amendment to Minn. Stat. § 268B.14 subd. 7.

The new amendment made a small change which capped the annual payroll premium rate at 1.1 percent vs. 1.2 percent of taxable wages paid to each employee. The Minnesota Paid Family Leave was signed into law in May 2024 and will take effect on January 1, 2026.

Takeaway:

Employers need to ensure compliance with the new employment law amendments taking effect at various times throughout the remainder of the year and January 2026. In the event that you have further questions about these changes and would like more guidance, please contact Kristin Kingsbury or Ellen Stirzl at 763-783-5171 or the other employment lawyers at BGS. Special thanks to law clerk Emily Giese from the University of Minnesota for support in writing this blog.