Wage and Hour Bulletin

May 2022

Minnesota Frontline Worker Pay A new law provides bonus pay for eligible COVID-19 frontline workers. The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) is finalizing details of the program, including an online application system and a required notice frontline sector employers must provide to their workers. DLI has also scheduled informational webinars to help employers better understand the employer notice requirement.

Frontline sectors, eligibility requirements

The frontline sectors include:

• long-term care and home care;
• health care;
• emergency responders;
• public health, social service and regulatory service;
• courts and corrections;
• child care;
• schools, including charter schools, state schools and higher education;
• food service, including production, processing, preparation, sale and delivery;
• retail, including sales, fulfillment, distribution and delivery;
• temporary shelters and hotels;
• building services, including maintenance, janitorial and security;
• public transit;
• ground and air transportation services;
• manufacturing; and
• vocational rehabilitation.

Frontline workers also must meet certain eligibility requirements, which can be found at frontlinepay.mn.gov.

Applications

It is anticipated the application will be open June 8 through July 22, 2022. These dates are subject to change. When the system is ready to accept applications, eligible workers will have 45 days to apply for Frontline Worker Pay.

Notice required Within 15 days after the application period is opened, employers in the identified frontline sectors must provide notice to all current workers who may be eligible for Frontline Worker Pay. An employer notice that meets this obligation will be available at frontlinepay.mn.gov as soon as the application dates are finalized.

Webinar:  Frontline Worker Pay information for employers

To help frontline sector employers better understand the employer notice requirement and answer questions about Frontline Worker Pay, DLI has scheduled two informational webinars.

• Tuesday, May 31, from 1-2 p.m. Register for the webinar.
• Friday, June 3, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Register for the webinar.

Find more information about the webinars at dli.mn.gov/fwp-webinar.

Outreach toolkit Help spread the word about Frontline Worker Pay. We've created an outreach toolkit with sample text for newsletters, social media posts and graphics, and more. The content also is available in Hmong, Somali and Spanish. We encourage everyone to use our resources to help spread the word to those workers who may be eligible to apply.

Questions?

Labor Standards serves the people of Minnesota by providing
information about the state's wage, hour and employment laws.

Phone:  651-284-5075 or 800-342-5354
Email:  dli.laborstandards@state.mn.us
Website:  www.dli.mn.gov/laborlaw