Paid Leave Reporting

2025 Spring Short Courses

Clerks & Treasurers

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By: Steve Fenske

A New Insurance Program

• Up to 20 weeks of partial wage replacement
• May take up to 12 weeks of each type of leave, Family or Medical, but not more than 20 weeks combined.
• Administered by Dept. of Employment & Econ. Development (DEED).

Two Types of Leave

Family Leave

• Care for family member with a serious health condition; bond with a new baby or child; or for the safety reasons.

Medical Leave

• Care for yourself for a serious medical condition that prevents you from working.

Job Protections – Right to Return

• Employees must be restored to same of equivalent position upon return
• Pay, benefits, and seniority must be preserved
• Job Protection starts after 90 days of employment

All Townships Included

• All employers must provide this benefit to their employees – including election judges, firefighters, and part-time employees.
• No township is “too small”
• Excludes self-employed persons and contractors

All Townships Included

• Board of Supervisors is responsible to ensure this process is performed
• This is not a duty of the Clerk or Treasurer – so be fair with each other.

The Timeline

Compliance Tasks

1. Submit Quarterly Wage Reports
2. Provide Notice to Employees
3. Submit Paid Leave Program Premium (Payroll Tax)

Reporting is a Board responsibility; clerk or treasurer may help

Quarterly Wage Reports

• Used to document the wages paid to employees and is the basis for the payroll tax owed. Will be used to adjust premium rates over time.
• Two Methods are Used for Reporting
1. Existing Unemployment Insurance Account holders
2. New Paid Leave Only UI Account

Quarterly Wage Reports

• Piggybacks on the Unemployment Insurance (UI) System
• Reporting details outlined in Clerk & Treasurer presentation
• Towns already using UI don’t do anything new
• Towns not using UI must register for a Paid Leave Only account in the UI system
• Electronic reporting only – no paper option

Quarterly Wage Reports

• Towns must choose among these options for the use of the UI reporting system:

No UI Employees & No UI Account

• Right now: Register for a UI account.
• Begin Reporting October 2024
• With this account, Paid Leave premium is paid but no UI is paid.
• First Premiums Due: April 2026

Quarterly Wage Reports Registration

• Items Needed for Registration include:
• Federal Employer Identification Number
• Minnesota Dept of Revenue Tax ID Number
• Contact Information
• Wage Payment recipients, dates of pay, and amounts of pay
• Registration Help: https://www.uimn.org/employers/paid-leave/info-to-register.jsp

Quarterly Wage Reports Registration

• Registration Page: https://www1.uimn.org/ui_employer/ui/employer/login
• Registration Help: https://www.uimn.org/employers/paid-leave/info-to-register.jsp
• Help Line: 651-296-6141, Option 4 to speak to a person

Registration: First Payroll Date

• Paid-Leave-ONLY account – Enter the actual date wages were first paid. If it was a long time ago and you don’t know the actual date, do the best you can. 
• Joint UI/Paid Leave account – Enter the actual date wages were first paid.

Registration: Number of Employees

Registration: Number of Employees

• UI covered employees –
• Enter the number of employees covered by UI -- It’s ok to enter zero if you do not have any employees covered by UI. 
• Date UI covered services were first performed -- If you enter something other than zero for the number of employees, enter the date work was first performed in Minnesota. 

Registration: Number of Employees

• Paid-Leave covered employees – 
• Enter the number of employees covered by Paid Leave -- If you are registering a Paid-Leave-ONLY account, this should be greater than zero. 
• Enter the actual date services were first performed -- If it was a long time ago and you don’t know the actual date, do the best you can.

Registration: Number of Employees

• Paid-Leave covered employees – 
• Enter the number of employees covered by Paid Leave -- If you are registering a Paid-Leave-ONLY account, this should be greater than zero. 
• Enter the actual date services were first performed -- If it was a long time ago and you don’t know the actual date, do the best you can.

Registration: Industry Type

Registration: Industry Type

• Five Steps to Industry Type
• NIACS Category “Public Administration” appears appropriate for Townships.
• Owner / Officer Field:
• For Government: Provide information on town officers
• Percent ownership is 0%

Wage Reports through Existing UI Accts

• If you have been submitting UI Wage Detail Reports for:
• All employees - no change in the process with your Joint UI/Paid Leave account.
• Only some employees –no change in the process with your Joint UI/Paid Leave account. What did change is that you now have two accounts (your Joint UI/Paid Leave account, plus your new Paid-Leave-ONLY account) and will submit two Wage Detail Reports each quarter – one for employees covered by UI and one for employees covered by Paid Leave, but not UI.

Wage Reports in New UI Accts

• New Account Setup at https://www1.uimn.org/ui_employer/ui/employer/login and help at https://www.uimn.org/employers/employer-account/new-account/index.jsp

Wage Reports: Submitting Details

• Wage Reports include Employee name, Social Security number, Gross wages, and Paid hours worked.
• File Upload (Excel Template is available, with instructions)
• Manual Entry
• Copy from Previous Quarters
• Zero Wage Report
• Directions for Each Method are on the UI Webpage

Notice to Employees

• Towns must inform employees of the Paid Leave program, its benefits and employee’s rights by December 2025.
• DEED expected to produce sample notices.
• Require employees to give written notice that they received the information

Notice to Townships

• DEED must inform the township if an employee uses Paid Leave
• Town may require employee to provide documentation required to apply for the leave.

Pay Premiums

• Statutory cap: Premiums cannot rise above 1.2% of wages
• Premiums reset each year in July
• Premiums are paid by a payroll tax of 0.88% of the employee’s wages
• Employers must pay at least 50% of the tax, but may pay more than 50% of the premium.

Premium Rates

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• Towns will likely be in the Small Employer category
• Small Employer category reduces premium rate to 75% or regular rate

Pay Premiums

• Payroll deductions begin Jan. 1, 2026
• First Premium payment due by April 30, 2026
• Premiums are paid by a pay roll tax of 0.88% of the employee’s wages
• Employers must pay at least 50% of the tax, but may pay more than 50% of the premium.

Other Leave Laws

• ESST: Provides short-term leave for care of others; Employer-administered
• Family Medical Leave Act: Federal-provided unpaid leave for care of others. Can required FMLA run concurrently with Paid Leave
• Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Act: State-provided leave; MSA 181.941;

Penalties

• Late Filing penalty – at least $250
• Missing or Erroneous Information - $25 per employee missing or erroneous information
• Unreported employee – Fee of 2% of the wages for each missing employee