Minnesota ESST Law: Accrual, Use, and Pay Stub Rules

Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time law gives nearly every employee in the state paid leave they earn as they work: one hour for every 30 hours on the clock, up to 48 hours a year, usable for your own health, a family member’s care, safety situations, bereavement, weather closures, and more. The law took effect January 1, 2024 and applies to full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers alike.¹

Who Qualifies

If you work at least 80 hours in a year for an employer in Minnesota, you are covered. Your schedule type doesn’t matter, and neither does the size of the business. Workers who live out of state but perform most of their work inside Minnesota are included too.¹

The exclusions are narrow. Independent contractors are not employees and don’t qualify. Federal employees and certain airline flight crew members are also exempt. In the building and construction industry, a collective bargaining agreement can waive ESST, but only if the waiver specifically names the ESST law; that carve-out doesn’t extend to other industries.¹

How Hours Build Up

You earn one hour of ESST for every 30 hours worked, including overtime. Accrual is capped at 48 hours per year unless your employer sets a higher limit. Unused hours roll over, and your running balance can grow to 80 hours; once you hit that ceiling, accrual pauses until you spend some down.²

There is no waiting period. Hours become usable the moment you earn them, so a brand-new employee with a handful of hours on the books can take paid leave for a qualifying reason. Some employers skip accrual tracking entirely by front-loading the full 48 hours at the start of the year. If you’re rehired by the same employer within 180 days, your previously accrued hours must be restored.²

One thing the law does not require: a payout of unused hours when you leave the job. Some employers do it voluntarily, but quitting or being let go doesn’t automatically convert your ESST balance into a check.²

What You Can Use the Hours For

The list of qualifying reasons is broader than most people assume.

Your own health. Mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, including preventive care like annual checkups and ongoing treatment.¹

A family member’s care. The same health reasons apply when someone in your family needs you. The definition of “family member” reaches well past the obvious. It covers children, spouses, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, in-laws, foster and step-relatives, and equivalent relatives of your spouse or domestic partner. It also includes anyone whose close relationship with you is the equivalent of a family bond. On top of all that, you can designate one additional person per year as a qualifying family member, which is useful for a close friend or roommate who doesn’t fit the standard categories.³

Safety situations. If you or a family member is dealing with domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking, ESST covers time to seek medical attention, get counseling, work with a victim services organization, consult a lawyer, relocate, or secure your home.¹

Closures. When weather or a public emergency shuts down your workplace, or closes a family member’s school or child care, you can use ESST for the lost time.³

Communicable disease. If a health authority or doctor determines that you or a family member could spread an illness, you can stay home. The same applies when your employer sends you home during a public health emergency, or when you’re waiting on test results after a known exposure.¹

Bereavement. ESST is available to make funeral arrangements, attend a service, or handle financial and legal matters after a family member’s death. This use catches a lot of people by surprise.¹

How to Request Time and What You Owe Your Employer

You can use ESST in the smallest increment your employer’s payroll system tracks. If payroll measures time in six-minute blocks, six minutes is the floor. Going the other direction, your employer cannot force you to use more than four hours at a time, so a short absence doesn’t have to cost you a full shift of leave.⁴

You do not have to reveal the specifics of a medical condition or safety situation. For absences of two consecutive scheduled workdays or fewer, your employer generally cannot demand documentation at all. If you miss more than two consecutive days, your employer may ask for reasonable documentation, and a short written statement in your own language saying you used the time for a qualifying reason is typically enough. No notary, no special form.²

What Should Appear on Your Pay Stub

Every earnings statement must show two numbers: the total ESST hours available to you, and the hours you used during the pay period. That applies whether you get a digital pay stub or a paper one.⁴ If those figures are missing, that alone is a compliance problem. Your employer also has to give you a written notice of your ESST rights in your primary language, and the policy belongs in any employee handbook the workplace maintains.¹

Retaliation Is Prohibited

Your employer cannot punish you for requesting or using ESST. The ban reaches past firing and demotion. Cutting your hours, passing you over for promotion, or shifting you to less desirable shifts after you take leave can all qualify as retaliation.²

Attendance point systems get particular scrutiny. If your employer runs a points-based attendance policy and assigns points for ESST absences or treats them as unexcused, that likely violates the anti-retaliation rule. Using ESST is a protected right, not an attendance infraction.

If Your Employer Breaks the Rules

You have two options. The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry enforces ESST through its Labor Standards Division, and you can file a complaint there for investigation.¹ You can also sue in civil court on your own.

Damages are calculated to make non-compliance expensive. Your employer owes the value of the ESST hours you should have received or were blocked from using, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages. When the exact number of lost hours is unclear, the default is 48 hours per year of non-compliance, also doubled by the liquidated damages rule.²

Minneapolis and St. Paul Have Their Own Rules Too

Both cities had sick and safe time ordinances before the state law existed, and those local rules remain in force. Where the local ordinance is more generous, the local standard applies; where the state law is more favorable, the state law wins. Whichever version benefits the employee more is the one that controls.¹ If you work in Minneapolis or St. Paul, check your city’s ordinance to see where it may go beyond the state baseline.

1
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST)
2
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. FAQs: Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST)
3
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Earned Sick and Safe Time
4
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. ESST Employer Checklist