Nearly all Minnesota workers would be entitled to paid sick leave under a plan moving through the Legislature that’s aimed at the roughly one-third whose employers don’t already give them time off when they’re ill.
Employees would be guaranteed one hour of paid “earned sick and safe time” for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year. Unused time up to 80 hours could be carried over into the next year. The proposal sets a floor, and nothing would change for workers who already have better benefits.
Workers could use the paid time off for physical or mental illness, treatment or preventive care, caring for a family member and absences related to domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking. They could also use it when there are closures for weather or public emergencies or to quarantine to avoid spreading communicable diseases.
“The reality of life is that everyone gets sick at one point or another,” the chief author, Democratic Rep. Liz Olson of Duluth, said last week before the bill cleared the House on a party-line vote. The Senate Finance Committee is set to take up the bill soon.
More than 900,000 Minnesota workers don’t currently get paid time off to care for themselves or loved ones, Olson said.
The Democratic-controlled House passed similar legislation in 2019, 2021 and 2022 but couldn’t get it past the formerly Republican-controlled Senate. Democrats now control both chambers and the bill has already cleared three Senate committees on the way to an eventual...
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