ST. PAUL — Minnesota will soon require all employers to provide workers with more than a week of paid sick time each year.
A final jobs and labor package passed by the House and Senate on Tuesday night creates a new “sick and safe time” mandate, where employers must offer 48 hours of paid time each year for illness, medical appointments, child care or seeking help for domestic abuse. Around 900,000 workers in Minnesota do not have any paid time off, and most of them are low-wage, supporters say.
Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers say their jobs and labor package jobs and labor package will protect worker safety and economic well-being. The bill passed the House 70-61 and the Senate 34-32 on Tuesday on party-line votes, with no Republican support.
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“When this session began, we told people across our state that we would build an economy that works for all Minnesotans,” said Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic in a floor speech ahead of the bill’s passage.
“It helps ensure that no working Minnesotan has to choose between a paycheck and the time to care for themselves or a loved one,” she later added, urging lawmakers to vote for the bill.
The next step is the desk of DFL Gov. Tim Walz, who supports the policy.
Besides the sick time mandate, the 274-page bill creates new workplace safety regulations for warehouse and meatpacking workers, and a new nursing home work standards board.
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