If the ongoing hubbub in St. Paul over the coming statewide paid-leave workplace mandates sounds familiar, it’s because Duluth went through a similar debate not long ago, about seven years ago. Perhaps you recall “sick and safe time.”
Then, like now, few begrudged legally allowing workers to responsibly take time off to care for an ill loved one or to deal with a personal emergency. Also then like now, it was the details over how to legally allow that which proved so sticky and difficult and even politically charged.
Since the state’s mandate will supersede Duluth’s ordinance, compromise and cooperation are needed once again so that Minnesota employees receive the flexibility under the law that they need to take care of their lives and so that taxpayers and businesses, especially small businesses that employ 1.2 million Minnesotans, aren’t crippled financially.
“In Duluth, it was very controversial,” Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Baumgartner recalled in a recent interview with the News Tribune Opinion page. “But the City Council, before acting, worked with the business community and met with businesses: ‘This is happening. How can we make sure your voice is heard?’ … By the end, everybody felt like they had input, and the way we did it was most palatable to everybody.”
That doesn’t appear to be the case this time. Few businesses, nonprofits, or others about to be impacted are feeling much ownership, not in the assessment of Baumgartner or Minnesota Chamber President Doug Loon.
It’s not too late, though. Minnesota’s paid-leave mandates don’t go into effect until Jan. 1. So, all the hubbub now can continue until strategies and protocols are found that work for, or at least are seen as acceptable to, employees and employers alike.
“We’re anxious for this to be right-sized and to be done in a way that’s manageable,” Loon told the Opinion page in the interview on April 24. “We want to make sure that the launch happens really correctly, because here’s my fear: If they launch it like some other state programs have been launched and it doesn’t go well, employees are going to be frustrated, and guess where they’re going to go? They’ll go visit with their employer … when it’s really the responsibility of the state.”
In the interest of the launch going as well as possible, legislation in the Minnesota Senate is seeking to tweak the 2023 law, including possibly adjusting the rate at which workers can accrue time off, minimizing impacts from payroll taxes that are increasing nearly 50%, and helping employers in a tight labor market cover for workers who go on leave in accordance with the new mandates. There are simply not enough employees to fill open positions, especially on a temporary basis. For every job opening in the state currently, the Minnesota Chamber determined, only .6 of a worker is available to fill it.
Then there’s the overarching matter of ensuring Minnesota can remain economically competitive while also offering among the nation’s most-generous sick-and-safe-time and paid-family-medical-leave benefits.
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“We know this is going to be expensive on the state’s economy and at a time when we already have all kinds of workforce challenges,” Loon said. “I’m worried about productivity. What will this do to the state’s productivity? … There’s lots of interest in getting this right, and I think that’s where the governor and other members of the DFL Party join with the Republicans: Let’s make sure this thing, when it goes live, works and is fiscally manageable from a workforce as well as an economic standpoint.”
As Baumgartner said, “Duluth worked very hard to try to get it into a palatable position.” The state must do no less. It’s not too late.
The Trust Project
