Having a baby in 2025? You might get paid leave in 2026
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Some of the first Minnesotans to take time off when the state's new paid family and medical leave law kicks in next year will likely be people who became parents in 2025.
The big picture: The law, passed under the DFL trifecta in 2023, uses a small payroll tax hike to offer most workers statewide up to 12 weeks off with partial pay to care for a new baby, deal with a serious illness, or help sick relatives and close kin.
State of play: The law — and a 0.88% tax increase — takes effect Jan. 1.
- But parental leave — called "bonding leave" under the state program — can be taken within the 12 months following a birth, adoption or foster placement, meaning many 2025 parents are still eligible next year.
By the numbers: Minnesota's Department of Employment and Economic Development projects that about 48,000 of the 131,000 claims expected in year one will be for family leave.
- Family leave can include time off for bonding with a new child, caring for a loved one, supporting a family member on active duty or dealing with domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking.
- Based on data from other states, Minnesota expects between 5,000 and 7,000 of those requests to be for people who welcomed a child in 2025, Paid Leave director Greg Norfleet said at a recent briefing.
What they're saying: The law's backers say the retroactive eligibility for new parents in year one is modeled after other states.
- "We wanted to help as many people as possible," chief author Sen. Alice Mann (DFL-Edina) told Axios, noting that lawmakers budgeted for this scenario when funding the launch.
Friction point: The benefits are available regardless of whether someone has already taken employer-provided parental leave in 2025.
- The possibility that workers will "double dip" in year one by taking back-to-back leaves for the same child is adding uncertainty and stress for businesses already bracing for big changes under the law, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce's Lauryn Schothorst told Axios.
Case in point: Schothorst, the Chamber's director of workplace management and workforce development policy, said she knows of one business where six of the 30 employees took parental leave in 2025.
- "You're struggling in 2025 to get through those periods of leave ... that it can happen again, it's consequential," she said. "It can create serious hardships for employers and other staff members."
Between the lines: The law also allows Minnesotans who meet certain criteria to combine family and medical leave, for a maximum of 20 weeks off a year, adding more uncertainty for businesses planning staffing for next year, she added.
Reality check: About 60,000 babies are born in Minnesota each year, but DEED's estimates are based on an assumption that not everyone who's eligible for parental leave will take it.
- Mann said data from other states suggests those who do will, on average, take just eight weeks of bonding leave. For medical leave, the average time off is closer to six weeks.
- "Many people who are working check to check, they're just not going to be able to take off the entirety of the time," Rep. Cedrick Frazier, the House DFL lead on the issue, said of the partial wage replacement provided by the program.
What's next: Minnesotans who plan to use the state's benefits are supposed to give their employers 30 days' notice.
- A DEED spokesperson told Axios that they'll be testing the application portal in the coming weeks and anticipate launching it before the end of the year.
Zoom in: Two moms, two different approaches
Shakopee mom Bree Carlson was surprised but thrilled to learn that she could tap the state's benefits to care for her second child, who is due in early November.
- Carlson's company doesn't offer paid maternity leave, so she planned on using unpaid time off and short-term disability, as she did for her first child, to cobble together time off post-birth.
But thanks to the new law, she'll use disability through the end of the year, before taking three months of partially paid leave via the state in 2026.
- "The bonding time is huge for me, and the fact that we're not going to be so strapped financially relieves a little bit of that stress," Carlson, whose husband is self-employed and doesn't qualify for the state benefits, told Axios.
Erin Maas of Eagan, who took 16 weeks of paid leave from her employer after giving birth to her first child in late May, is taking a different approach.
- She estimates half the members of a new mom's group she joined plan to tap the state's benefits to take more time off next year.
Yes, but: She was hesitant to take more time off during the winter, an especially busy season for her job, and so soon after transitioning back to work.
- "I don't know [that] I want to swing myself back and forth," she said of adjusting to life as a working mom.
Where she landed: Maas will forgo the state benefits, while her husband, who took less time off initially, will take another month in January, allowing the family to save on day care.