The Minnesota sick and safe leave law, officially called Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST), gives nearly every worker in the state paid leave that accrues at one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year. It took effect January 1, 2024, and covers part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees alongside full-time staff. You can use the hours for your own illness or a family member’s, for bereavement, for safety needs tied to domestic abuse or stalking, and for certain workplace or school closures.
Who Qualifies
You are covered if you work at least 80 hours in Minnesota during a year for a single employer.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.9445 – Definitions That threshold is based on what your employer anticipates, not a count run at year’s end. Public-sector workers at the state, county, city, and school-district level are covered. Every employer with at least one employee is subject to the law. There is no small-business exemption.
A few categories of workers are excluded: independent contractors, volunteer and paid on-call firefighters, certain volunteer ambulance attendants, elected officials and their appointed replacements, short-term farm laborers who work 28 days or fewer per year, and airline flight crew who work less than a majority of their hours in Minnesota and already receive equivalent paid leave.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.9445 – Definitions
How Hours Accrue
You earn one hour of ESST for every 30 hours worked, capped at 48 hours per year.2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.9446 – Accrual of Earned Sick and Safe Time Accrual starts on your first day. There is no waiting period, so you can use hours as soon as you earn them.
If you are salaried and exempt from federal overtime, your employer counts you as working 40 hours per week for accrual. If your usual workweek is shorter than 40 hours, accrual is based on that shorter schedule.
Carryover and the 80-Hour Cap
Unused hours roll into the next year, but your total balance cannot exceed 80 hours at any point unless your employer agrees to a higher limit. That means you can build a reserve over time even though annual accrual tops out at 48.
Front-Loading
Your employer can skip hour-by-hour tracking and front-load the leave at the start of each year instead. If the employer pays out your unused balance at year’s end, the front-load is 48 hours. If the employer does not pay out unused hours, the front-load must be at least 80 hours.
What Happens When You Leave
Your employer is not required to pay out your unused ESST balance when you separate.3Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. FAQs: Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) If the same employer rehires you within 180 days, your previously accrued hours must be reinstated.
What You Can Use the Hours For
ESST covers more situations than most workers realize. The qualifying reasons group into a handful of categories, and you can use your time for yourself or for a covered family member.
Health and Preventive Care
You can use ESST for a physical or mental illness, injury, or health condition, and for medical treatment or preventive care including routine appointments like a dental cleaning or an annual checkup.4Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.9447 – Use of Earned Sick and Safe Time Recovery from a procedure, managing a chronic condition, and attending therapy appointments all qualify.
Bereavement
Time off after the death of a family member is covered. You can use ESST to attend a funeral or memorial, or to handle the financial and legal matters that follow a death. This is a detail many workers miss, because “sick leave” does not intuitively suggest bereavement.
Safety Leave
If you or a family member is dealing with domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking, ESST hours can cover time to seek medical attention, obtain counseling, get help from a victim services organization, relocate or secure your home, or pursue legal action, including court proceedings.
Closures
When your workplace closes because of a weather emergency or public health crisis, you can use your accrued hours. The same applies if a family member’s school or care facility closes for those reasons. Think snow days that shut down a child’s daycare, or a public health order that closes your employer’s facility.
Communicable Disease
You can use ESST if your employer bars you from working out of concern for disease transmission, or if you are waiting for diagnostic test results after an exposure. The same applies if a health authority or healthcare professional determines your presence in the community would endanger others because of exposure, even if you have not contracted anything yourself.
Who Counts as a Family Member
Minnesota’s family definition is unusually broad. It reaches well past spouse, parent, and child.
- Children, including biological, adopted, foster, adult children, legal wards, and children for whom you serve or served as a parent figure
- Spouse or registered domestic partner
- Siblings, including stepsiblings and foster siblings
- Parents, including biological, adoptive, foster, stepparents, and people who served as your parent figure when you were a minor
- Grandchildren and grandparents, including step and foster relationships
- Nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and in-laws (children-in-law and siblings-in-law)
- All of the above categories as they apply to your spouse’s or domestic partner’s family
- Anyone related by blood or whose relationship with you is the functional equivalent of a family bond
- One additional person you designate each year
That last item is the chosen-family provision.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.9445 – Definitions A close friend, a roommate you consider family, or anyone else whose relationship with you functions like a family tie can be named once per year.
How You Get Paid
When you use ESST, your employer pays you at your base hourly rate. If you earn multiple hourly rates, you receive the rate you would have earned on the specific shift you missed. Salaried employees receive the same pay they would have earned had they worked.3Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. FAQs: Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST)
If you are paid solely on commission, piecework, or another non-hourly basis, the employer must pay at least the applicable minimum wage, using whichever is highest among the local, state, and federal rates. The base rate does not include commissions, tips, shift differentials, overtime premiums, holiday or weekend pay, or bonuses.
Employers can require you to use ESST in set increments, but no increment can exceed four hours. If payroll tracks time in smaller units, that smaller unit is the minimum.5Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Earned Sick and Safe Time Employer Checklist
Notice, Documentation, and Privacy
When you know in advance that you will need leave, your employer can require up to seven days of notice. For unexpected absences, you must notify your employer as soon as practicable.3Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. FAQs: Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST)
Your employer can only ask for documentation when you use ESST for more than three consecutive scheduled workdays.4Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 181.9447 – Use of Earned Sick and Safe Time For shorter absences, no proof is required. Even for longer absences, the rules are flexible:
- For health-related leave, a signed statement from a health care provider is standard; if you did not see a provider or getting documentation would take unreasonable time or expense, your own written statement explaining the qualifying reason is enough.
- For safety leave, a court record, or a statement signed by a victim services worker, attorney, police officer, or counselor satisfies the requirement. If none of those is readily available, your own written statement works.
- For closure-related leave, your written statement is all that is needed.
Written statements can be in your first language and do not need to be notarized or follow a specific format.
Your employer cannot require you to disclose the details of a medical condition or the specifics of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking. A note confirming the need for leave is enough; it does not need to include a diagnosis.
Retaliation Is Prohibited
Your employer cannot fire you, cut your hours, demote you, discipline you, or give you a negative performance review because you requested or used ESST. Any action that punishes you for using accrued time, or that discourages you from using it, violates the law.6Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST)
Retaliation often shows up indirectly. Watch for a sudden schedule change, being passed over for shifts, or an attendance write-up that counts ESST absences against you. If ESST use is a factor in any adverse action, the employer is on the wrong side of the law.
Your pay stub should also show how many ESST hours you used in the pay period and how many remain. If those balances are missing, that is itself a violation.7Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Earned Sick and Safe Time Employee Notice And while you are on ESST, your employer must keep your group health coverage in place as if you were working; you still pay your share of the premium.
Filing a Complaint
If your employer denies your ESST rights, fails to pay you during leave, or retaliates against you, file a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. DLI handles ESST enforcement and can be reached at 651-284-5005 or 800-342-5354.6Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) Keep records of your hours worked, any leave requests, and communications with your employer. That paper trail makes an investigation significantly easier.
If You Work in Minneapolis or St. Paul
Both cities had their own sick and safe time ordinances before the state law took effect, and the state law does not eliminate them. Where the local ordinance is more generous to employees, the employer must follow the local standard. If you work in either city, check the local ordinance as well. It may provide faster accrual, broader coverage, or additional protections beyond the state baseline.