Minnesota - St. Paul, Minnesota, Amends Paid Sick Leave Ordinance

Ordinance No. 2025-057

Effective Nov.  16, 2025, Ordinance No. 2025-057 amends the city’s sick leave ordinance again to more closely align the city’s ordinance with the latest version of the state’s law. Here is a summary of some of those provisions.

Covered Employees

As amended, the ordinance covers employees, including temporary and part-time employees, who are anticipated by the employer to perform work within the geographic boundaries of the city for at least 80 hours in a year. 

Permitted Uses

Ordinance No. 2025-057 expands the reasons employees may use paid sick leave under the city’s paid sick leave ordinance.

An employee may use paid sick leave for the following reasons:

•        The employee’s or a family member’s mental or physical illness, treatment, or preventive care;

•        Absence due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, harassment or stalking of the employee or a family member;

•        Absence due to the need to make arrangements for or attend funeral services or a memorial, or address financial or legal matters that arise after the death of a family member;

•        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; and

•        The employee's inability to work or telework because the employee is: (i) prohibited from working by the employer due to health concerns related to the potential transmission of a communicable illness related to a public emergency; or (ii) seeking or awaiting the results of a diagnostic test for, or a medical diagnosis of, a communicable disease related to a public emergency and such employee has been exposed to a communicable disease or the employee's employer has requested a test or diagnosis.

Employees may also use paid sick leave for the closure of their workplace due to weather or public emergency or closure of a family member’s school or care facility due to weather or public emergency. However, an employee is prohibited from using it for these closures if:

•        The employee’s preassigned or foreseeable work duties during a public emergency or weather event would require the employee to respond to the public emergency or weather event;

•        The employee is a firefighter; a peace officer subject to licensure under state law; a 911 telecommunicator; a guard at a correctional facility; or a public employee holding a commercial driver’s license;

•        One of the following two conditions is met:

o   The employee is represented by an exclusive representative, and the collective bargaining agreement or memorandum of understanding governing the employee’s position meets certain conditions.

o   The employee is not represented by an exclusive representative, is needed for the employer to maintain minimum staffing requirements, and the employer has a written policy that meets certain requirements.

Employees may use paid sick leave in the same time increment for which employees are paid, provided an employer isn’t required to allow leave in less than 15-minute increments, nor can the employer require use in increments of more than four hours.

Pay During Leave

During paid sick leave, employees must be compensated at their “base rate” (or more), and in no case may it be less than the applicable minimum wage. Before Ordinance No. 2025-057, the city’s ordinance required paid sick leave to be paid at the employee’s hourly rate (or more).

Under the city’s amended ordinance, base rate means:

·      For employees paid on an hourly basis, the same rate received per hour of work;

·      For employees paid on an hourly basis who receive multiple hourly rates, the rate the employee would have been paid for the period of time in which leave was taken;

·      For employees paid on a salary basis, the same rate guaranteed to the employee as if the employee hadn’t taken the leave; and

·      For employees paid solely on a commission, piece rate, or any basis other than hourly or salary, a rate no less than the applicable local, state, or federal minimum wage, whichever is greater.

For purposes of the ordinance, base rate doesn’t include:

·      Commissions;

·      Shift differentials that are in addition to an hourly rate;

·      Premium payments for overtime work;

·      Premium payments for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or scheduled days off;

·      Bonuses; or

·      Gratuities (as defined by state law).

Carryover and Frontloading

Under both the preexisting city ordinance and the city’s most recent amendments, employers must generally permit employees to carry over accrued but unused paid sick leave into the following year. Prior to Ordinance No. 2025-057, employees were required to work in the city for more than a year to be entitled to such carryover.

Ordinance No. 2025-057:

·      Removes the requirement to work in the city for more than a year to be entitled to carryover.

·      Requires employers to permit employees to carry over at least 80 hours of accrued but unused paid sick leave to the following year.

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 city ordinance 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 base rate as an employee earns from employment (must be at least the minimum wage); or

·      80 hours, if an employer doesn’t pay an employee for accrued but unused paid sick leave at the end of a year.

Note: Employers must apply the same accrual/frontloading method to all employees.

Employee Documentation

When an employee uses paid sick leave for more than two consecutive scheduled workdays, an employer may require reasonable documentation that the time off is covered by the amended ordinance. The amended ordinance also clarifies the types of documentation employees may provide. See the text of the amended ordinance for details.

Poster and Individual Notice

Employers must display a workplace notice about the paid sick leave ordinance. The city must create acceptable notices. Employers must post the city-created notices in English and in any language spoken by employees.

Under the amended ordinance, employers must also provide a notice to all employees on an annual basis. The notice must describe employee rights under the ordinance, including, but not limited to, the right to report a violation and notice that retaliation by an employer is prohibited.

Paid Sick Leave Statements

Upon request of the employee, the employer must provide, in writing or electronically, information stating the employee's then current amount of:

·      The total number of paid sick leave hours available to use; and

·      The total number of paid sick leave hours used during the pay period.

Employers may choose a reasonable system for providing this notification, including, but not limited to:

·      Listing information on or attached to each earnings statement; or

·      An electronic system where employees can access this information.

Ordinance No. 2025-057 also requires that employers who choose to provide this information by electronic means also provide employees with access to an employer-owned computer during an employee’s regular working hours to review and print.

Recordkeeping and Employee Access

Ordinance No. 2025-057 clarifies and amends recordkeeping requirements under the paid sick leave ordinance. Specifically, it requires that employers create and maintain the following records demonstrating compliance with the ordinance:

·      The name, address, phone number, email, and position of each employee;

·      The rate of pay, and the amount paid each pay period to each employee;

·      The hours are worked each day and each workweek for employees on an hourly basis;

·      The number of pieces completed for employees paid at a piece rate; 

·      The method of calculating commissions for employees paid on a commission basis;

·      The statements of earnings required by the city’s wage theft ordinance;

·      The employee wage notices and (and any changes made to them) that are required by the city’s wage theft ordinance.

·       A copy of all personnel policies provided to the employee, including the date the policies were given to the employee and a brief description of the policies.

The records must be retained for at least three years after the termination of employment, except for the required statement of earnings, which must be retained for at least three years after the date upon which the statement was provided to the employee.

If requested, an employer must allow an employee to inspect their own records at a reasonable time and in a reasonable manner.

Next Steps

·       Read the amended ordinance.

·       Provide paid sick leave in accordance with the requirements of the amended ordinance (and Minnesota state law).

·       Monitor the website of the Department of Human Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity for updates to the required notices.

·       Post and furnish the updated notices.

·       Update leave policies and forms and employee handbooks to comply with the amended ordinance.

·       Train supervisors on the amended ordinance.