The deadline to apply for Minnesota’s Frontline Worker Pay program is this Friday, July 22, 2022, at 5:00 pm CST. Signed into law earlier this year, the Frontline Worker Pay program was designed to “thank those Minnesotans who worked on the frontline” during the early stages if the COVID-19 pandemic.
Employees from the 15 official “frontline sectors” should have already been notified regarding their eligibility for these benefits. Those sectors are: Building services; Child care; Courts and corrections; Emergency responders; Food service; Ground and air transportation services; Health care; Long-term care and home care; Manufacturing; Public health; Social service and regulatory service; Public transit; Schools; Temporary shelters and hotels; and Vocational rehabilitation.
In addition to working in one of these sectors, Minnesotans qualifying for the Frontline Worker Pay program:
- Must have been employed at least 120 hours in Minnesota in one or more frontline sectors between March 15, 2020, and June 30, 2021;
- 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;
- Must meet the income requirements for at least one of 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, and
- for workers in occupations without direct COVID-19 patient care responsibilities, the adjusted gross income* limit is $185,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly, or $85,000 for other filers; and
- 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
For more information on this program, please visit the Department of Labor and Industry’s Frontline Worker Pay toolkit, which includes frequently asked questions, frontline sector details, a program fact sheet, application basics, and other resources. And, to apply to Minnesota’s Frontline Worker Pay program, please go online to the Application Page. Applications are available in Hmong, Somali, and Spanish.
