Looking ahead to Jan. 1, 2024, when Minnesota's statewide paid Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) law takes effect, the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (MNDOLI) recently issued guidance in the form of answers to frequently asked questions, a factsheet, and a video overview of the law to aid employers.
Employers must follow the sick and safe leave requirements most favorable to their employees. This means employers must comply with the specific requirements of the state law and the applicable local ordinances that are most favorable to their employees. There are contradictions, and further guidance is needed from MNDOLI. Employers may have to follow some of the requirements of state law and other requirements of local law.
While employers may be familiar with the frontloading requirements of the Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Bloomington ordinances, the state law added an option that so far only the amended Bloomington and St. Paul ordinances (effective Jan. 1, 2024) allow.
The state law provides an alternative procedure that allows an employer to provide 48 hours of earned sick and safe time in the first year of employment, pay out in cash the value of unused hours at the end of the designated year, and not carry over any unused hours into the next year. The other option is to frontload 80 hours with no pay out at the end of the year.
The state law says earned sick and safe time may be used in the smallest increment of time tracked by the employer's payroll...
By Olivia GomesMay 18, 20260 comments WASHINGTON — A new analysis published by The Atlantic argues that election denial movements once viewed as politically fringe are becoming increasingly embedd...