‘Blue Dog' Democrats vote to roll back paid sick leave for workers at small farms and businesses

Yahoo

07-05-2025

Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, talks with Sen. Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton, before a committee hearing on Jan. 29, 2025. (Photo by A.J. Olmscheid/Senate Media Services)
Six self-described 'Blue Dog' Senate Democrats voted with Republicans on Tuesday to weaken the paid sick leave law they supported just two years ago and repeal the benefit for tens of thousands of workers at small farms and micro-businesses.
The bill would need to pass the House and win the signature of Gov. Tim Walz — neither assured — before becoming law.
Still, the vote marks a significant departure from the past two years, when Senate Democrats voted in lock-step to pass a sweeping pro-labor agenda with a single-seat majority.
'It's okay to pass laws and vote yes and then learn more information and make changes,' Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, said during Tuesday's debate. 'That's not a shameful thing. That's not weak. That's strong.'
Democrats passed the sick and safe time law in 2023, entitling workers to one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work up to 48 hours — i.e. six paid sick days a year for full-time employees.
The bill (SF2300) carves out farms with five or fewer employees and other businesses with three or fewer employees. The bill also allows employers to request proof of an illness or safety emergency after two consecutive days, down from three under current law.
Sen. Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton, who represents a purple district in the east metro suburbs, led the effort to pass what she called 'modest, common sense improvements' that help small businesses while maintaining sick leave protections for the vast majority of the state's 3 million workers.
'I'm proud of the earned sick and safe time law we passed because I've experienced what it's like to be a worker without it,' Seeberger said, ticking off her experiences as a waitress, lawyer, small business owner and paramedic.
But she also said she needs to be responsive to constituents and has heard from many employers about workers abusing the law by using sick leave to extend a vacation or a weekend.
Other Democrats blasted the bill and pointed out that no matter the size of the farm or business, workers are just as likely to get sick or have to care for a sick child or be a victim of sexual assault or stalking.
Senate Labor Committee Chair Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth, said it was 'shameful' that the farmworker carve out received support from members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, putting the emphasis on 'farmer' and 'labor.'
'These farmworkers are some of the least protected, powerless workers in our society,' McEwen said, noting that farmworkers are excluded from many of the same rights guaranteed to other workers like the right to form a union.
The small farm exemption would affect between 5,000 and 27,0000 workers, McEwen said. The carve-out for micro-businesses would affect between 50,000 to 80,000 workers, Seeberger said.
'No one — not a farmworker, not a tradesperson, not a nurse, not a teacher — no worker in our economy should be fired or disciplined or risk the ability to provide for their family because of a short-term illness that they have, because of the need to care for a sick family member, or because they've suffered domestic abuse or sexual abuse or stalking,' McEwen said.
Supporters of the exemption for small farms said it was critical to protecting family farms as they fend off corporate consolidation and confront myriad other regulations.
'We are losing our family farmer,' Hauschild said. 'Family farms are dying.'
DFL Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato co-authored the bill with Seeberger and Republican Sens. Jordan Rasmussen and Gene Dornink.
DFL Sen. Matt Klein, who announced Tuesday he's running for Congress in the 2nd District, voted with DFL Sens. Robert Kupec, Aric Putnam, Frentz, Hauschild and Seeberger for the bill. Sen. Jim Abeler was the lone Republican to vote against the bill.
Frentz has also authored a bill with Republicans watering down the state's paid family leave program slated to begin next year. Seeberger was also an author but recently had her name stricken.
The term 'Blue Dog Democrat' and the related 'Yellow Dog Democrat' have their origins among moderate, southern Democrats who retained loyalty to the party despite its shift left but often voted with Republicans to help pass the agenda of President Ronald Reagan, for instance.