Earned Sick and Safe Time Employee Notice

Employees in Minnesota are entitled to earned sick and safe time, a form of paid leave. Employees must accrue at least one hour of earned sick and safe time for every 30 hours they work, up to at least 48 hours in a year. A year for purposes of the employee’s earned sick and safe time accrual is the calendar year.

At the end of each pay period, employers must provide employees with the number of earned sick and safe time hours used by the employee during the pay period and available for future use. Earned sick and safe time must be paid at the same base rate employees earn from employment. Employees are not required to seek or find a replacement for their shift to use earned sick and safe time. They may use earned sick and safe time for all or part of a shift, depending on their need.

Earned sick and safe time can be used for:

an employee’s mental or physical illness, treatment or preventive care;
the mental or physical illness, treatment or preventive care of an employee’s family member;
absence due to domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking of an employee or their family member;
closure of an employee’s workplace due to weather or public emergency or closure of their family member’s school or care facility due to weather or public emergency; and
when determined by a health authority or health care professional that an employee or their family member is at risk of infecting others with a communicable disease.
making funeral arrangements, attending a funeral service or memorial or addressing financial or legal matters that arise after the death of a family member.

Notifying employer, documentation

An employer can require their employees to provide up to seven days of advance notice when possible (for example, when an employee has a medical appointment scheduled in advance) before using sick and safe time. An employer can also require their employees to provide certain documentation regarding the reason for their use of earned sick and safe time if they use it for more than three consecutive scheduled workdays.

If an employee plans to use earned sick and safe time for an appointment, preventive care or another permissible reason they know of in advance, inform your supervisor in-person, by phone, or by email as far in advance as possible. In situations where an employee cannot provide advance notice, the employee should contact their supervisor in-person, by phone, or by email as soon as they know they will be unable to work.

Retaliation, right to file complaint

It is against the law for an employer to retaliate, or to take negative action, against an employee for using or requesting earned sick and safe time or otherwise exercising their earned sick and safe time rights under the law. If an employee believes they have been retaliated against or improperly denied earned sick and safe time, they can file a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. They can also file a civil action in court for earned sick and safe time violations.

For more information

Contact the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry’s Labor Standards Division at 651-284-5075 or esst.dli@state.mn.us or visit the department’s earned sick and safe time webpage at sickleave.mn.gov.

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