Due to the high volume of calls from workers whose employment has been affected by COVID-19, the employer phone line is currently unavailable. We hope to make that phone line available again soon. Thank you for your continued patience during these challenging times.
Governor Tim Walz issued an executive order to relieve taxpaying employers of benefit charges associated with COVID-19. This means that any unemployment benefits your workers collect as a result of the pandemic will not be used in computing your future UI tax rate.
Congress has also passed legislation to provide financial relief to reimbursing employers. We are analyzing guidance from the federal government. We will provide updates to this page when available.
Yes. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) has a variety of resources to assist businesses. The programs include:
You can gather detailed information about these and other programs by visiting the DEED's COVID-19 Information for Businesses web page
We already have this information from your employees. Please do not “raise an issue” or call to tell us that benefits were paid as a result of COVID-19.
If your employee’s job was affected by COVID-19 but they did not select COVID-19 as their reason for separation, don’t worry. You do not need to "raise an issue". We will review your account again before we calculate your 2021 tax rate.
We may have already removed some benefit charges due to COVID-19 from your account. If you see benefit charges on your account due to COVID-19, do not raise an issue. We will review your account again before we calculate your 2021 tax rate.
Continue to “raise an issue” about any matters that are not related to COVID-19.
Congress passed the CARES Act on March 27, 2020. That legislation provides some financial relief for reimbursing employers affected by COVID-19. We are analyzing guidance from the federal government. We will provide updates to this page when available.
Continue to raise an issue about any matters that are not related to COVID-19.
Yes, PPP money used to pay employees is considered wages and must be reported.
Yes. The Shared Work Program is designed to help you reduce costs without losing your valued employees. If your business reduces hours by 50 percent or less, the Shared Work Program can help defray some of your employees’ lost wages.
Maintaining your current workforce will help you avoid the expense of recruiting, hiring, and training new workers. The Shared Work Program will also allow you to resume full operations quickly when business conditions improve.
Read more about the Shared Work Program.
If you have substantially reduced an employee’s hours (below 32 hours per week) or their rate of pay, they may be eligible for unemployment benefits.
If you have no work for your employees, they should apply for unemployment benefits. Governor Walz recently ordered that vacation pay/sick pay/paid time off will not delay unemployment benefits.
We ask applicants about other sources of income when they submit their weekly payment request.
If an applicant receives separation pay or severance pay for a week in an amount equal to or greater than their weekly unemployment benefit amount, they will not be eligible for that week.
If an applicant receives separation pay or severance pay for a week in an amount less than their weekly unemployment benefit amount, they will receive a reduced unemployment benefit for the week.
We ask applicants about other sources of income when they submit their weekly payment request. The effect of retirement pay or Social Security on unemployment benefits can vary, depending on the circumstances. We encourage anyone who is unemployed to apply for unemployment benefits.
Employees are not required to use all available paid leave before filing for unemployment.
Visit our web page for self-employed and independent contractors.
If you have temporarily laid off an employee, the employee can meet work search requirements by staying in regular contact with you about when work will resume.
If you require employees to take a leave of absence, either paid or unpaid, they should apply for unemployment benefits.
It depends on the situation. We are suggesting that workers who find themselves in this situation apply for unemployment benefits to find out if they are eligible.
Under Governor Walz’s executive order, an employee may be eligible for benefits if they are on a leave of absence and:
They may also be eligible for benefits if they took a voluntary layoff to avoid the layoff of another employee. View eligibility rules associated with voluntary layoffs.
Your employee(s) need to report any hours worked and any pay they received on their weekly benefit payment request.
We can pay a partial benefit payment for any week your employee works less than 32 hours and is paid less than their weekly benefit amount. The system will deduct 50 percent of their earnings from their benefit payment. The amount not paid for that week stays in their account.
If your employee worked is 32 hours or more, or you pay them an amount equal to or greater than their weekly benefit amount, they would not be eligible for an unemployment benefit payment that week.
To learn more, visit Working while collecting benefit payments.
