Statewide Paid Sick and Safe Leave Required in 2024
Beginning January 1, 2024, employers of all sizes are required to provide paid sick and safe leave to employees who work at least 80 hours in a year in Minnesota. Highlights:
- Employees begin to accrue paid sick and safe leave on January 1, 2024, or their date of hire if it’s later, and will earn one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked.
- Employers can cap sick and safe leave accrual at 48 hours per year. Accrued sick and safe leave carries over from year to year, up to a total cap of 80 hours.
- Sick and safe leave can be used as soon as it is accrued—there’s no waiting period.
- Available and used leave must be reflected on employee pay statements.
- Employers must provide employees with notice about their sick and safe leave rights and include a sick and safe leave notice in the employee handbook. This sample notice was issued by the Department of Labor.
Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) local ordinances are in effect in the cities of Bloomington, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, and may differ from the state’s ESST requirements. Employers are responsible for following the ESST requirements most favorable to their employees..
Duluth Repeals Local Sick Leave Law
Effective January 18, 2024, the City of Duluth’s earned sick and safe time law will be repealed. Minnesota enacted a statewide earned sick and safe time law that took effect on January 1, 2024, and makes the city’s leave law unnecessary.
Action Items
Those employers with employees actively working within the geographical boundaries of Duluth should update their existing paid leave policies to bring them into compliance with the standards of Minnesota Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) by January 18, 2024.
Bloomington and St. Paul Amend Sick and Safe Time Ordinances
Effective January 1, 2024, Bloomington and St. Paul’s sick and safe time (sick time) ordinances were amended to align with the new Minnesota Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) law, which was also effective January 1, 2024.
Amendments to both the Bloomington and St. Paul ordinances include:
- Expanding the reasons an employee may use sick and safe time to match the Minnesota law;
- Expanding the definition of “family member” to match the definition in the Minnesota law;
- Removing the 90-day waiting period before an employee can use accrued sick time. Now, employees are entitled to use accrued sick time immediately;
- Changing the provisions on frontloading and carryover to align with the Minnesota law; and
- Expanding the types of documentation an employee can submit if required by the employer.
The St. Paul amendments also include new provisions requiring job restoration, protection, and benefits preservation while an employee is on leave. The City of St. Paul is currently revising the administrative rules for the ordinance.
Salary History Inquiry Ban
Effective January 1, 2024, employers (and employment agencies) aren’t allowed to ask about or consider an applicant’s pay history, from any source. If an applicant volunteers this information without prompting, an employer can confirm and use it to support a higher wage or salary than it originally offered or intended to offer.
Action Item
Ensure that pay history questions are removed from applications and that those involved in the hiring process know not to ask, encourage, or prompt applicants to share this information.
Gender Identity Protection
Effective January 1, 2024, the state has updated its definition of gender identity as a protected class in employment, and while it was previously included within the definition of sexual orientation (dating back to 1993), it’s now recognized as its own category.
New Veterans’ Services Poster
Effective January 1, 2024, every employer in Minnesota with more than 50 employees must conspicuously display the state’s new veterans’ services poster (coming soon from the MN Department of Labor & Industry).
