Minnesota: Earned Sick and Safe Time Across the State – The Best of All Worlds

By Corie J. Anderson - Peters, Revnew, Kappenman & Anderson, P.A.

July 7, 2023

As I’ve recently blogged about here, Minnesota recently passed a statewide earned sick and safe time (ESST) law, effective January 1, 2024. However, ESST ordinances already exist in the cities of Bloomington, Duluth, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. In honor of Bloomington’s recently implemented ESST ordinance, which came into effect July 1st, this post compares the four different city ordinances (with Duluth being the most divergent) with the state law. Why? Because an employer who is working in more than one or in all of these cities must provide for a policy that is compliant with all of them – and as of January 1, the state’s ESST also.

Who is Covered?

•    Minnesota: Employees who work in Minnesota for at least 80 hours in a year.
•    Bloomington, Minneapolis, and St. Paul: Employees who work within the city limits for 80 hours or more in a year.
•    Duluth: Employees who spend more than 50% of their working time in Duluth in a year.
•    If you were to have one policy for all cities, you’d likely want to use the 80 hour requirement and not bother with whether someone spends more than 50% in Duluth because they’d meet the 80 hour requirement after working 160 hours in Duluth anyway (which is 4 weeks of full time work).

When Can ESST Be Used?

•    Minnesota: Employees may begin using ESST once they have worked 80 hours in Minnesota in a year.
•    In all four cities, ESST can start being used by employees upon their 91st day of employment (calendar days, not business days).

Accrual Method:

•    Minnesota: Employees earn 1 hour of ESST for every 30 hours worked.
•    Bloomington, Minneapolis, and St. Paul: Employees earn 1 hour of ESST for every 30 hours worked.
•    Duluth: Employees earn 1 hour of ESST for every 50 hours worked.
Earning Cap (Minimum):
•    Minnesota: Employees may earn up to 48 hours of ESST per year.
•    Bloomington, Minneapolis, and St. Paul: Employees may earn up to 48 hours of ESST per year.
•    Duluth: Employees can earn up to 64 hours of ESST per year.
•    Employers may provide more ESST than the above, of course (and yes, you can also have various levels based on years of service).

Employers have the option of frontloading ESST at the beginning of the year or having employees accrue as detailed above (where employees carry over unused ESST from one year to the next).

Frontloading of ESST:

•    Minnesota: Employers that wish to frontload and avoid carryover may (i) provide 48 hours of ESST at the start of the year and pay out any unused ESST from the previous year, or (ii) provide 80 hours of ESST at the start of the year, where no payout for unused ESST is required.
•    Bloomington, Minneapolis, and St. Paul: Employers may frontload at least 48 hours for an employer’s first benefit year. Every year following, employers may frontload at least 80 hours per year.
•    Duluth: Employers may frontload as long as they provide at least 40 hours of ESST.

Carryover Cap If Using Accrual Method:

•    Minnesota: Employees may carry forward 80 hours of unused ESST from year-to-year.
•    Bloomington, Minneapolis, and St. Paul: Employees may carry forward 80 hours of unused ESST from year-to-year.
•    Duluth: Employees may carry forward up to 40 hours of unused ESST from year-to-year.

A friendly reminder to employers located in these cities that they must provide employees with a notice informing them of their ESST rights. Again, an employer can always provide for MORE leave, MORE accrual, MORE everything noted above – just not less than the law requires.

www.minnesotawageandhour.com