Minnesota has enacted legislation (Senate File 3035) that will require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees. The requirement takes effect January 1, 2024.
The Details
Employee coverage
The law covers all employees (including temporary and part-time employees) who perform work for at least 80 hours in a year in Minnesota.
The requirements won’t apply to building and construction industry employees who are represented by a building and construction trades labor organization if a valid waiver of these requirements is provided in a collective bargaining agreement.
Employer coverage
The law covers all private employers with covered employees.
Accrual and frontloading
Accrual
Employees are entitled to begin accruing paid sick leave on January 1, 2024, or their date of hire, whichever is later. Employees must accrue a minimum of one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 48 hours in a year.
Employers must typically permit employees to carry over accrued but unused sick leave into the following year. However, employers may cap total accrual at 80 hours.
Frontloading
In lieu of allowing carryover into the following year, an employer may provide an employee with paid sick leave for the year that meets or exceeds the requirements of the law that is available for the employee's immediate use at the beginning of the subsequent year as follows:
- 48 hours, if an employer pays an employee for accrued but unused paid sick leave at the end of a year at the same hourly rate as an employee earns from employment; or
- 80 hours, if an employer doesn’t pay an employee for accrued but unused paid sick leave at the end of a year at the same or greater hourly rate as an employee earns from employment.
Use of leave
An employee may use the paid sick leave as it accrues for:
- The employee’s mental or physical illness, treatment, or preventive care;
- A family member’s mental or physical illness, treatment, or preventive care;
- Absence due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking of the employee or a family member;
- Closure of the employee’s workplace due to weather or public emergency or closure of a family member’s school or care facility due to weather or public emergency; and
- When determined by a health authority or healthcare professional that the employee or family member is at risk of infecting others with a communicable disease.
A family member is defined as a:
- Child, including foster child, adult child, legal ward, child for whom the employee is legal guardian or child to whom the employee stands or stood in loco parentis (in place of a parent);
- Spouse or registered domestic partner;
- Sibling, stepsibling, or foster sibling;
- Biological, adoptive or foster parent, stepparent, or a person who stood in loco parentis (in place of a parent) when the employee was a minor child;
- Grandchild, foster grandchild or step-grandchild;
- Grandparent or step-grandparent;
- A child of a sibling of the employee;
- A sibling of the parents of the employee;
- A child-in-law or sibling-in-law;
- Any of the family members listed above of an employee’s spouse or registered domestic partner;
- Any other individual related by blood or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship; and
- Up to one individual annually designated by the employee.
Pay during leave
Employees who use paid sick leave must be paid at the same hourly rate they earn when they are working.
Employee notice and documentation
If the need for use is foreseeable, employers may require up to 7 days’ advance notice of the need for leave. If the need is not foreseeable, an employer may require an employee to give notice of the need for leave as soon as practical. An employer that requires notice of the need to use paid sick leave must have a written policy containing reasonable procedures for employees to provide notice, and must provide a written copy of such policy to employees.
If the absence is more than three consecutive days, the employer may require reasonable documentation that the absence is covered by the law. See the text of the law for details on what is considered reasonable documentation.
Notice, wage statements, and recordkeeping
Employers must provide notice to employees about their rights under the law. The notice must include specified information and must be provided in English and the primary language of the employee. The notice must be provided by January 1, 2024 or at the start of employment, whichever is later. The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry will prepare a uniform employee notice that employers can use and will make it available in English and the five most common languages spoken in Minnesota.
The means used by the employer must be at least as effective as the following options for providing notice:
- Posting a copy of the notice at each location where employees perform work and where the notice must be readily observed and easily reviewed by all employees performing work;
- Providing a paper or electronic copy of the notice to employees; or
- A conspicuous posting in a web-based or app-based platform through which an employee performs work.
Employers that provide an employee handbook to their employees must include in the handbook the notice of employee rights under the law.
In addition to the employment and payroll records required by the state, an employer must maintain accurate records for each employee showing hours of work as well as the paid sick leave taken. The records must be retained for a period of at least three years. An employer must allow an employee to inspect records at a reasonable time and place.
Wage statements must include the total number of paid sick leave hours accrued and available for use as well as the amount of sick leave hours used during the pay period.
Existing local paid sick leave local ordinances
Paid sick leave ordinances already exist in certain cities in Minnesota. When Minnesota’s paid sick leave law goes into effect January 1, 2024, employers must follow the most protective law that applies to their employees.
Existing paid time off policies
Employers that provide paid sick leave under a paid time off policy or other paid leave policy that may be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions as the law requires, and that meets or exceeds, and doesn’t otherwise conflict with, the minimum standards and requirements provided by the law aren’t required to provide additional paid sick leave.
Retaliation prohibited
Employers are prohibited from taking adverse action against an individual because they have exercised or attempted to exercise rights protected under the law.
Unused leave
Employers aren’t required to pay employee for unused paid sick leave upon the employee's termination, resignation, retirement, or other separation from employment.
Next Steps
If you have employees working in Minnesota for at least 80 hours each year:
- Provide paid sick leave in accordance with the requirements of the law beginning January 1, 2024.
- Provide the required notices by January 1, 2024, or the start of employment, whichever is later.
- Update leave policies and forms and employee handbooks to comply with the law.
- Train supervisors on the law.
Please contact your dedicated service professional with any questions.