Application Period Opening for New Minnesota Frontline Worker Pay Program

On April 29, 2022, Governor Tim Walz signed Minnesota Frontline Worker Payments into law. These payments will be made to individuals working as frontline workers in Minnesota during the COVID-19 emergency. The law allocates $500 million to be divided among frontline workers with a maximum individual payment of $1,500 per eligible applicant.

Timeline

• Employees: When the application period opens (expected to be June 8), employees will have 45 days to apply for Frontline Worker Pay. Applicants must be prepared to verify eligibility requirements. Information needed to complete the application can be found here.
• Employers: If your business operates in one of the applicable job sectors and you had employees working in the state of Minnesota, you are required to provide notice to your current employees within 15 days after the application period is opened that they may be eligible for the pay.
  
  The notice must be provided in the same form that you use to provide other work-related notices and must be at least as conspicuous as posting a copy of the notice at each worksite and where the notice may be readily observed and reviewed by all workers working at the site, or providing a paper or electronic copy of the notice to all workers.
  
  A sample notice form is forthcoming and will be posted on the Frontline Worker Pay website in English, Hmong, Somali and Spanish.

Eligibility for Minnesota Frontline Worker Payments

An applicant must meet both a job sector and work requirement.

Job Sector Requirement

The following job sectors are eligible for Frontline Worker Pay:

• Building services, including maintenance, janitorial and security
• Child care
• Courts and corrections
• Emergency responders
• Food service, including production, processing, preparation, sale and delivery
• Ground and air transportation services
• Health care
• Long-term care and home care
• Manufacturing
• Public health, social service and regulatory service
• Public transit
• Retail, including sales, fulfillment, distribution and delivery
• Schools, including charter schools, state schools and higher education
• Temporary shelters and hotels
• Vocational rehabilitation

Work Requirements

To be eligible for Frontline Worker Pay, the applicant must meet the following work requirements:

1. The applicant was employed for at least 120 hours in Minnesota in one or more frontline sectors between March 15, 2020, and June 30, 2021.
2. For the hours worked during this time period, the applicant was not able to telework due to the nature of the individual’s work and worked in close proximity to people outside of the individual’s household.
3. The applicant meets the income requirements for either the 2020 or 2021 tax years:
   • Workers with direct COVID-19 patient care responsibilities must have had an adjusted gross income less than $350,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly, or less than $175,000 for other filers.
   • Workers in occupations without direct COVID-19 patient care responsibilities must have had an adjusted gross income less than $185,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly, or $85,000 for other filers.
4. The applicant must not have received an unemployment insurance benefit payment for more than 20 weeks on a cumulative basis for weeks between March 15, 2020, and June 26, 2021.

Additional information can be found here.

Questions about how the new Minnesota Frontline Worker Pay program affects you?

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