The Minnesota legislature has rocked lately. Last year they passed a new family and medical paid leave bill, which will begin covering Minnesotans in 2026. Employees will be eligible for up to 20 weeks of paid leave a year, funded by a new payroll tax split between employers and employees. More details to come — most is still being worked out.
However, for all Minnesota employers, the first wage report for that fund is due next week, by 10/31!
If you are like most Minnesota employees, it’s not too onerous a task, because it tracks with your MN UI quarterly. You will want to check with your payroll company to make sure they are reporting correctly (if you are one of my clients I’ve got you and it’s taken care of).
However, there’s one set of people that this new requirement hits hard — small, single or dual member LLCs (like Gladhill Rhone). Previously, companies like these were exempt from UI reporting, because the state figured (probably correctly) that you were not going to fire yourself.
Now, though you still don’t have to pay state UI, you do have to set up a “Paid Leave Only” account. It’s a little bit tricky, and you only have a few more days to do so, so hop to it!
First, go to MN UI. Assuming you do not already have a UI account set up (because in the past you were told not to), you need to “Register for an account.” The system will prompt you through the set-up, for which you will need your EIN and MN State ID number. One you are set up, you will get a temporary ID and password, and you will be mailed a full password (in the mail, on a piece of paper, watch for it and do NOT overlook it, because your temporary log-in is only valid for a few weeks).
This is very important. As you move through the prompts, it will ask you for some dates, like when the business started and when you started paying covered wages. Do not bother to go back and suss when you were incorporated and ran your first payroll. The date you need to input for this is 07/01/2024. If you do anything else (like put in the real date that you incorporated), the system will suddenly wonder why you have not been paying UI all these years. Ask me how I know this.
You will want to put that you are not required to pay UI, but you are required to pay family leave. Yes, even if you are just one person. Basically every Minnesota employer will need to register.
After you have input your information (ownership, address, dates, etc.), you would *think* that then you could go and file your quarterly wage report. But NO.
Apparently, the system takes up to 3 days to get all of your registrations in before you can file. This is why it’s incredibly important that you do this ASAP, because the report is due by next Thursday 10/31, and you need to have those few days for it to all sync up internally.
Once that happens — and you will just have to mark your calendar, they don’t send you a reminder or anything — you need to log back in (good thing you saved that password, huh?), and file your quarterly hours and wages by employee. This should be pretty fast, because there are likely only one or two people to report. You just have to submit the report; there is no payment due. Basically, they are trying to get a handle on employer payroll amounts to calculate the tax/benefits, and they need a few quarters of the data to do so.
This is a putz process, and it takes awhile. Luckily, the people who work at MN UI are the nicest state employees you will ever meet. I have never talked to one who was not incredibly patient and helpful. It’s hard to get to the contact page while you are logged into another part of the site, so their number is 651-296-6141, ext. 4. They are open 8-4:30, Mon-Fri.
May the odds be ever in your favor!