Minnesota’s Ridiculous Paid Leave Rule Takes Effect; Critics Say Illegal Aliens Will Benefit

As Democrats’ new outrageous, Commie, European-style paid leave policies take effect today in Minnesota, critics are concerned that illegal aliens — including Somali fraudsters — could be among the beneficiaries.

Based on a detailed analysis from the Austin Daily Herald and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, the new paid leave rules are thoroughly socialistic, offering higher monetary amounts for paid leave of workers who make lower incomes. Not only that, but employers will be required to provide nearly five months of leave to certain employees, an anti-free market, impractical, and utterly unjust standard. No doubt many small businesses will have to close their doors on this plan.

The majority of Minnesota employers now have the unfortunate necessity of providing employees with 12 weeks of family leave and also 12 weeks of medical leave every year, per the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce (which opposed the legislation):

Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML): The new, historic paid leave mandate forces employers to offer [paid leave]… The program will be administered by a new state agency with over 400 full-time employees. It will be paid for through surplus funds and a considerable increase in payroll taxes, which can be split between employers and employees. Additional program expansions and requirements along with technical and programmatic changes made during the 2024 legislative session revealed that the payroll tax would need to dramatically increase to cover the program and ensure solvency (0.88% amended from the originally stated 0.7%).

As for surplus funds, I’m not sure where Democrats plan to get those, as Minnesota is facing nearly $3 billion in budget shortfall. Meanwhile, taxpayers will have to shoulder yet more of the financial burden, government will expand, and small businesses might as well close right away.

Notably, even “undocumented workers” are supposed to be covered by the paid leave rules, per the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. That means illegal aliens. Meanwhile, Minnesota and Gov. Tim Walz are mired in a massive fraud scandal.

Minnesota is implementing a law where all workers, including part-time, temporary and illegal migrants, can get up to 20 weeks of paid time off for reasons including "caring for a loved one." The state has massive organized fraud, primarily by Somalis. https://t.co/TjUN4z8fsD
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) December 3, 2025

The Austin Daily Herald added the following information about the paid leave program:

State officials estimate nearly 132,000 people will apply for the benefit in the first year, and that the state will collect around $1.6 billion to fund it.
Someone who earns less than 50% of the state’s average weekly wage, according to the state Labor Department, would get 90% of their normal pay.
A worker earning more than 50% of the state’s average weekly wage would get 66%. Those earning double the weekly average pay would receive 55% of their regular wage.

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is not exaggerating, I think, when it predicts “devastation” for businesses. But Democrats only seem to know how to destroy. They never increase prosperity or build up industry. They enrich themselves and impose onerous regulations on others.

Also as an ominous note on a different topic, voters in Minnesota looking for absentee ballots will have to provide an ID card number and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers… unless the applicant certifies he has no Social Security number. This seems to be a loophole for illegal alien voting. In the state, a voter can vouch for up to eight other people on Election Day, another reason for concern. What cesspools Democrat states are.

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