Minnesota: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
Most Minnesota employees who are expected to work at least 80 hours a year in the state earn one hour of paid earned sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year, and may use it as it accrues with no waiting period. Unused time carries over but the bank is capped at 80 hours, unless the employer instead frontloads 48 or 80 hours at the start of each year. The leave covers the employee's or a broadly defined family member's illness, care, and preventive care, plus bereavement, domestic-violence and safety needs, and weather or public-emergency closures.
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This is the general rule in Minnesota. Ezel applies current Minnesota law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and local interaction | Earned Sick and Safe Time law, Minn. Stat. §§ 181.9445–181.9448, enforced under § 177.50. Statewide mandate in force since Jan. 1, 2024; amended in 2024 and 2025. Earned sick AND safe time, not any-reason leave. § 181.9448 subd. 1(c) does not preempt any local law that gives greater amount, accrual, or use, so a stronger city ordinance (currently Minneapolis and St. Paul) may add rights. |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | Employer = any person with one or more employees, including nonprofits and state and local government; the U.S. government is excluded (§ 181.9445 subd. 6). Employee = anyone the employer anticipates will work at least 80 hours in a year in Minnesota, including temporary and part-time workers (subd. 5). Excluded: independent contractors; certain volunteer or paid-on-call firefighters, volunteer ambulance attendants, and paid-on-call ambulance personnel; elected or appointed officials; and farm laborers employed 28 days or less per year. A staffing-agency temp is the agency's employee. |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | One hour per 30 hours worked, accruing from the start of employment, up to 48 hours in a year unless the employer allows more (§ 181.9446(a), (d)). No statutory waiting period: leave is usable as it accrues (§ 181.9446(e)). Overtime-exempt employees are deemed to work 40 hours per week, or their shorter normal week (§ 181.9446(c)). |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | Accrued unused time carries over, but the bank is capped at 80 hours at any time unless the employer allows more (§ 181.9446(b)(1)). Instead of carryover, the employer may frontload at the start of each year: 48 hours if it pays out the prior year's unused balance at the base rate, or 80 hours if it does not (§ 181.9446(b)(2)). A PTO or other paid-leave policy substitutes only if it meets or exceeds these terms for the same uses and conditions (§ 181.9448 subd. 1(a), (e)). |
| Qualifying uses and family | The employee's or a family member's illness, injury, health condition, diagnosis, treatment, or preventive care; bereavement (funeral or memorial arrangements and post-death financial or legal matters); domestic-abuse, sexual-assault, or stalking safety needs; closure of the workplace or a family member's school or care due to weather or public emergency; and communicable-disease exposure (§ 181.9447 subd. 1). Family is unusually broad (§ 181.9445 subd. 7): children, spouse or registered domestic partner, siblings, parents, grandchildren, grandparents, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, in-laws, the same relatives of a spouse or partner, any individual whose close association is the equivalent of family, and up to one designated person per year. |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | For a foreseeable need the employer may require up to seven days' advance notice; for an unforeseeable need, notice as the employer reasonably requires under a written policy (§ 181.9447 subd. 2). Documentation may be required only for an absence of more than two consecutive scheduled workdays, and a signed employee statement suffices where a professional's note cannot reasonably be obtained (subd. 3). No replacement worker may be required (subd. 4). Increments: at least 15 minutes, and the employer may not force use in more than four-hour blocks (subd. 5). |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | Paid at base rate — the hourly rate, the rate for the period worked when rates vary, the guaranteed salary rate, or at least minimum wage for commission or piece-rate — excluding commissions, shift differentials, overtime and weekend/holiday premiums, bonuses, and tips (§ 181.9445 subd. 4a). Group health coverage continues during use (§ 181.9447 subd. 7). No payout of unused time at separation is required (§ 181.9448 subd. 2), but previously accrued unused time is reinstated if the employee is rehired within 180 days. Each pay period the employer must state available and used hours; records of hours worked and time taken are kept three years and open to employee inspection (§ 181.9447 subd. 10). |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | Employers must notify every employee (at hire or by Jan. 1, 2024) in English and the employee's primary language, by posting, a paper or electronic copy, or an app platform, and must include the rights in any handbook (§ 181.9447 subd. 9). Broad anti-retaliation rule: no discharge, discipline, interference, or discrimination for requesting or using time or asserting rights; an attendance-point system may not count protected leave, and threatening to report immigration status is barred (§ 181.9447 subd. 6). Enforced by the Department of Labor and Industry; an employee may sue within three years (§ 177.50 subd. 2). Remedies: the value of the time wrongly denied plus an equal amount as liquidated damages, or, if records are inadequate, 48 hours per year plus an equal liquidated amount (§ 177.50 subd. 7). |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
Requirements one by one
Accrue one hour per 30 worked, up to 48 a year, usable right away
Minnesota's rate is one hour of earned sick and safe time for every 30 hours
worked, and accrual starts on the first day of employment. The annual accrual is
capped at 48 hours unless the employer chooses to allow more. At one hour per 30,
reaching 48 hours takes 1,440 hours worked in the year.
Unlike California, Minnesota imposes no probationary waiting period: § 181.9446(e)
says employees may use the time as it is accrued. A salaried, overtime-exempt
employee is treated as working 40 hours a week (or a shorter normal week) for
accrual.
Carryover caps the bank at 80 hours; frontloading is the alternative
Accrued unused time carries into the next year, but the running balance is capped
at 80 hours at any time. The 48-hour annual accrual limit and the 80-hour bank cap
are different numbers: an employee who uses little leave can build a bank larger
than one year's accrual, up to 80 hours.
An employer that would rather not track carryover may frontload under
§ 181.9446(b)(2). The frontload amount depends on payout: 48 hours if the employer
pays out the prior year's unused balance at the base rate, or 80 hours if it does
not. Choosing to frontload the lower 48 hours therefore requires a year-end cash-out
of whatever was left unused.
Match the request to a qualifying use and the broad family list
Section 181.9447 subd. 1 covers the employee's own illness and preventive care,
care of a family member, bereavement (funeral or memorial arrangements and
financial or legal matters after a family member's death), domestic-violence and
safety needs, weather or public-emergency closures of the workplace or a family
member's school or care, and communicable-disease exposure. It is sick and safe
time, not any-reason leave.
The family definition in § 181.9445 subd. 7 is one of the widest in the country. It
reaches not only children, a spouse or registered domestic partner, siblings,
parents, grandchildren, and grandparents, but also nieces and nephews, aunts and
uncles, in-laws, the equivalent relatives of a spouse or partner, "any other
individual related by blood or whose close association with the employee is the
equivalent of a family relationship," and one person the employee designates each
year.
Pay at base rate; keep records and a per-pay-period statement
Leave is paid at the employee's base rate, defined in § 181.9445 subd. 4a as the
hourly rate (or the rate for the period worked when rates vary), the guaranteed
salary rate, or at least minimum wage for commission or piece-rate work. Base rate
excludes commissions, shift differentials, overtime and weekend or holiday premiums,
bonuses, and tips.
Under § 181.9447 subd. 10, the employer must report the available and used hours to
each employee every pay period and keep records of hours worked and time taken for
three years, open to the employee's inspection.
What trips people up
The 48-hour and 80-hour numbers do different jobs. Forty-eight hours is the
most an employee accrues in a year; eighty hours is the most the bank may hold at
once. Hitting the 80-hour cap does not raise the 48-hour annual accrual.
Frontloading 48 hours is not "free." The 48-hour frontload is available only if
the employer cashes out the prior year's unused balance at the base rate. To skip
any payout, the employer must frontload the full 80 hours.
Documentation cannot be demanded for a one- or two-day absence. An employer may
ask for reasonable documentation only when the leave runs more than two consecutive
scheduled workdays, and even then a signed employee statement is enough where a
professional's note cannot reasonably be obtained.
No payout at separation, but a 180-day rehire window restores the balance.
Under § 181.9448 subd. 2 the employer need not pay out unused time when employment
ends, yet if the worker is rehired by the same employer within 180 days, the
previously accrued unused hours must be reinstated.
Local ordinances can be stronger. Minnesota does not preempt more generous local
law. As of 2026, Minneapolis and St. Paul are the only cities with their own earned
sick and safe time ordinances, and an employer in those cities must follow whichever
rules are most favorable to the employee. Duluth and Bloomington previously had their
own ESST ordinances but have since repealed them (Duluth effective January 2024,
Bloomington in April 2026), so workers there now rely on the statewide law.
Common questions
Does a brand-new employee have to wait to use the time?
No. Accrual begins at hire and § 181.9446(e) lets employees use earned sick and
safe time as it accrues, so there is no 90-day-style waiting period.
Can my employer make me find someone to cover my shift?
No. Section 181.9447 subd. 4 bars requiring a replacement worker as a condition of
using the time, though an employee may voluntarily trade shifts.
How much notice can the employer require?
For a foreseeable need, up to seven days' advance notice; for an unforeseeable need,
only what the employer reasonably requires under a written policy it has given you
(§ 181.9447 subd. 2).
What can I recover if my employer denies the leave?
Under § 177.50 subd. 7 the employer is liable for the value of the time wrongly
denied plus an equal amount as liquidated damages, and 48 hours per year is presumed
when the employer's records are inadequate. A suit must be filed within three years
(§ 177.50 subd. 2).
Statutes and sources
- Minn. Stat. §§ 181.9445–181.9448. Definitions, accrual, carryover and
frontloading, uses, notice, documentation, increments, retaliation, notice and
posting, records, and effect on other law. Minnesota Office of the Revisor of
Statutes (accessed July 23,
2026). - Minn. Stat. § 177.50. Earned sick and safe time enforcement, individual
remedies, and damages. Minnesota Office of the Revisor of
Statutes (accessed July 23,
2026). - Local ordinances. Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, Earned sick
and safe time — lists current local ESST ordinances (Minneapolis and St. Paul).
View official text (dli.mn.gov) (accessed July 23, 2026). City of
Bloomington, Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) — confirms the city ordinance was
repealed. View official text (bloomingtonmn.gov)
(accessed July 23, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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