Minnesota Sick and Safe Time: Accrual, Uses, and Pay

Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time law took effect on January 1, 2024, and it requires every employer in the state to give workers paid leave they can use when they are sick, when a family member needs care, after a death in the family, or when facing domestic violence, stalking, or certain closures. If you work at least 80 hours a year for a Minnesota employer, you earn one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year, and unused hours roll over up to an 80-hour cap.¹

Who Is Covered

Coverage is broad. Full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers all qualify as long as they are expected to work at least 80 hours in a year for the employer.¹ Because that threshold is based on anticipated hours, eligibility starts on your first day. Every employer is covered regardless of size.

Independent contractors are not covered.² The original statute also excluded certain flight deck and cabin crew members of air carriers who met specific federal criteria under the Railway Labor Act, worked less than a majority of their hours in Minnesota, and already received equivalent paid leave. That exclusion has been challenged in court, so airline employees should confirm current status with their employer or the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

How the Hours Add Up

You earn one hour of ESST for every 30 hours worked. Accrual begins on day one, and you can use the leave as soon as you have it. There is no waiting period.³

The annual accrual cap is 48 hours. Anything you do not use rolls over into the next year, but your running balance cannot exceed 80 hours unless your employer chooses a higher limit.³

Employers can skip the accrual math by front-loading. The statute allows two versions:

Provide 48 hours at the start of the year and pay out any unused hours at year-end at the employee’s base rate (not less than minimum wage).
Provide 80 hours at the start of the year with no year-end payout.

Either way, front-loading removes the carryover tracking requirement.³

What You Can Use ESST For

The reasons go well beyond being sick yourself:

Your own mental or physical illness, injury, medical appointments, preventive care, and diagnostic tests.
Care for a family member with any of those same needs.
Bereavement, including arrangements, funeral or memorial attendance, and financial or legal matters after a family member’s death.
Domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking affecting you or a family member, including medical attention, counseling, victim services, relocation, and legal help.
Closure of your workplace due to weather or a public emergency, or closure of a family member’s school or care facility for the same reasons.
Public health situations where a health authority or provider determines you or a family member could spread a communicable disease, or where your employer bars you from the workplace over communicable illness during a public emergency.

Bereavement often surprises people, since the law’s name focuses on sickness and safety, but it is written directly into the statute.⁴

Who Counts as a Family Member

The family definition under ESST reaches further than most state leave laws. It includes:

Children of every kind: biological, adopted, foster, adult, legal wards, and children you stood in place of a parent for.
Your spouse or registered domestic partner.
Siblings, including stepsiblings and foster siblings.
Parents, including biological, adoptive, foster, and stepparents, and anyone who stood in place of a parent when you were a minor.
Grandchildren and grandparents, including step-grandchildren and step-grandparents.
Nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, children-in-law, and siblings-in-law.
All of the above categories on your spouse’s or domestic partner’s side.
Anyone whose relationship with you is the equivalent of a family bond.
One additional individual per year that you designate.

That last item is the true catch-all. If someone matters to you and does not fit anywhere else, you can name them once a year.²

How You Get Paid for the Time

ESST is paid at the same base rate you earn when you are working.¹ Tips, overtime premiums, and other supplemental pay are not built into that base rate.

You can take ESST in the smallest increment your employer’s payroll system already tracks. If payroll runs in 15-minute increments, so does your leave. An employer cannot force you to use it in blocks larger than four hours.⁵

Notice and Documentation

For a foreseeable absence, such as a scheduled appointment, your employer can require up to seven days’ advance notice. When the need is unexpected, you only need to notify your employer as soon as reasonably possible.⁶

Reasonable documentation can be requested only if your absence covers more than two consecutive scheduled workdays. A healthcare provider’s note works for medical reasons; a court record or similar evidence works for safe leave. If cost or privacy makes documentation hard to obtain, a written statement from you is enough.⁶

What Your Employer Must Give You

Every employee is entitled to a written ESST notice, in their primary language, explaining their rights. Each pay period, your earnings statement or pay stub must show your accrued and used ESST hours.¹ If those numbers are missing, that is a good place to start a conversation with your employer.

Leaving and Coming Back

Your employer does not have to pay out unused ESST when you leave the job, whether you quit or are let go. Some employers pay it out voluntarily, but the law does not require it.²

Return within 180 days and your accrued balance must be reinstated, as long as it was not paid out when you left. If it was paid out, the employer does not owe you those hours again.²

If Your Employer Denies Leave or Retaliates

Retaliation for requesting or using ESST is prohibited. Employers also cannot use policies, such as attendance point systems, that penalize workers for using their earned leave.²

You have two paths if a problem comes up. File a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry’s Labor Standards Division at 651-284-5075 or esst.dli@state.mn.us. Complaints can be filed anonymously, though contact information helps the agency follow up. You can also bring a civil lawsuit on your own to recover damages.²

Minneapolis and St. Paul

Both cities had sick and safe leave ordinances before the state law arrived, and those local ordinances are still in force. Where the local rule and the state rule differ, your employer must apply whichever one is more favorable to you on that specific point. That can mean state law governs some provisions while the city ordinance governs others.²

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 Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.9446 – Earned Sick and Safe Time
4
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.9447 – Use of Earned Sick and Safe Time
5
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. ESST Employer Checklist
6
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Earned Sick and Safe Time Employee Notice