Minnsights Blog

We're excited about the conversation we’re going to have today regarding some of the political work of the Chamber of Commerce. We run a program called the Minnesota Business Network, which aims to bring together individuals who are sympathetic to the business community and want to support candidates who represent business interests well in their elected positions, particularly those serving or aspiring to serve in the state legislature. We have a very important election season ahead of us and early voting has already started. If you're unavailable on November 5, be sure to vote early and make your voice heard.

Employers are also mandated to provide one hour of fully paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year with a carry over up to 80 hours, including temporary and part-time employees. Employees must be paid at the same rate they would earn if they were working. Employees may take this time off to care for a broad-based definition of “family members.” The Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) oversees compliance and penalties and can be used in tandem - “stacked” - with Paid Family Medical Leave. This will take effect January 1, 2024.

This week, the upcoming elections are at the forefront of our minds. We’re in the final weeks of the 2024 election cycle, and much attention is being directed toward Governor Walz, who is the vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic Party on the national stage. This is an exciting development for our state.

Two things that have informed my adult life are a couple events in my adolescent life. First, a good friend was in a car accident and became disabled from the waist down at age 17. Four years later, a virus attacked my dad’s spine while he slept leaving him unable to feel his legs the next morning. So I came to learn a thing or two about the challenges people who use wheelchairs face. Given that I was often called up to help them enter buildings and such, for a person not in a chair, I was a savant at sussing out whether or not a building was accessible. I also became excellent at tooling around my parent’s house in my dad’s wheelchair in the wheelie position (45 seconds through the dining room, around the living room and back!)

Lawmakers passed a new law that prohibits employers from meeting or communicating with their employees on public policy. The “captive audience” law stipulates that communications must be “wholly voluntary” and not be political or religious in nature. There is a federal preemption of these laws, and they have been litigated in other states. Minnesota’s law is effective on August 1, 2023.