Amy Lindgren
For Minnesota families balancing work/life issues, things are about to get a little easier. The state’s first Family Medical Leave Act passed the Legislature last week, having undergone seemingly endless revisions.
Conversely, for businesses balancing employee/productivity issues, things are about to get a little more complicated.
The new legislation will provide up to 20 weeks total paid leave in a year, depending on the individual’s qualifying medical and family reasons, with weekly payments ranging from about $200 to $650, depending on the worker’s salary.
The payments themselves will come from a state fund of payroll taxes collected for this purpose, and will be disbursed from a state agency, much like the unemployment payment process.
Long-term effects of the program are difficult to predict, since the entire landscape of FMLA is still relatively new. While the U.S. government…
