Earned Sick and Safe Time

Employees can use Sick Time to cover an absence due to:

• Mental or physical illness or injury
• Receiving diagnosis, care, or treatment for any of the above
• Receiving preventive medical care

Employees can also use Sick Time to care for a family member for any of these reasons. 

Employees can use Safe Time to cover absence due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking of themselves or a family member. ESST can be used to: 

• Seek medical attention related to a physical or psychological injury
• Get services from a victim services organization
• Receive counseling
• Seek legal advice or attend legal proceedings
• For other reasons related to seeking safety from domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking

ESST can also be used to cover absence due to the closure of work or school due to weather or a public emergency. For example, employees can use ESST to take care of children whose schools are closed due to weather. 

Employees can use ESST in the smallest increment of time tracked by the employer’s payroll system (provided that the increment is shorter than four hours). If an employee has an ESST balance below the minimum time tracked by the employer, the employer must allow the employee to use their remaining balance.

No. Employers can't require employees to share their specific reason for using ESST. 

When an employee uses ESST for more than three consecutive workdays, an employer may require documentation that the time is being used for a reason covered by the ordinance. In this case, "consecutive” means any three days the employee is scheduled to work. It does not have to be three consecutive calendar days. 

Documentation may include, but is not limited to, one of the following:

• Documentation of medical treatment;
• Written statement from the employee indicating that ESST is being used for a qualifying purpose;
• Court record or documentation signed by a volunteer or employee of a victim services organization, attorney, police officer, or antiviolence counselor.

No. An employer may not require an employee to find a replacement worker to cover any hours or shift missed using ESST.

Yes, if the reason is covered by the ordinance. For example, a child's parents work for the same employer. If that child is sick, both parents are allowed to use ESST to care for them.

Retaliation is illegal. Employers are prohibited from punishing or discriminating against employees who use ESST in good faith. Examples of retaliation include, but are not limited to: termination, suspension, revocation of benefits, demotion, job reassignment, pay decrease, loss of hours.

Additionally, employers cannot give absence or attendance points to an employee who has requested to use ESST.

Employers with one or more employees who work at least 80 hours a year in the City of Saint Paul. If an employer has employees working outside the City of Saint Paul, please direct questions to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

An employee supplied by a staffing agency is an employee of the staffing agency for the purpose of the ordinance, unless there is a contract stating otherwise. All employees supplied by a staffing agency located outside of Saint Paul are entitled to ESST if they work within the geographic boundaries of Saint Paul for at least 80 hours in a year.

If the paid time off (PTO) policy meets the requirements of the City's ESST ordinance, the employer doesn't need to provide additional ESST. Employers can provide more generous ESST than the ordinance requires. 

When an employer offers a universal PTO policy made up of sick, personal, and vacation leave, the employer may require employees to follow certain procedures for requesting leave. However, these procedures may not interfere with the purposes for which ESST is needed or with the requirements of this ordinance.

For example: An employer's policy requires one week notice before taking leave. However, an employee needs to take unexpected time off to care for a sick child. The employer cannot deny this request due to lack of notice.

Employers providing a universal leave policy that meets the minimum requirements of the ordinance are required to maintain records showing employee reasons for leave (for example, vacation, sick time, safe time). 

When a business changes hands, employees retain and may use all accrued ESST if the employee continues to work within the City of Saint Paul for the new employer, regardless of where the new employer's headquarters are located.

The new employer must provide employees with its ESST policies at the time of sale or acquisition, or as soon as practicable. These must include a policy that complies with the ordinance.

Employers must provide notice of ESST to new employees when they start. Employers must also distribute notice of ESST throughout their workforce. The notice and any written policy must be in English and the primary language of employees whose first language isn't English. 

• Regularly distributing the notice and a written ESST policy to each employee personally, by regular mail, or by e-mail.
• Regularly distributing the notice and a written ESST policy to employees through things like company newspapers, newsletters, check stubs, handbooks, manuals, and/or posting on the company intranet.
• Physically posting the notice and a written ESST policy in a noticeable place where notices to employees are typically posted.
• Signed acknowledgements from each Employee may be satisfactory for providing notice.

The Department has available a standard Workplace Notice Poster for employers in 5 different languages. An employer may hang the standard Workplace Notice Poster in a noticeable place, such as in a breakroom, by a punch clock, or at some common work meeting place where it can be seen by employees. employers may also put an electronic copy in an internet or app platform to satisfy written posting requirements. 

Employers must create and keep records for each employee for at least three years. Records must include:

• Name
• Job title
• Work and personal phone numbers
• Email and mailing address
• Total hours worked in the City of Saint Paul physically and remotely, with corresponding dates
• Standard hourly rate of pay for each job title and year of employment
• Accrued ESST time
• Used ESST time
• Amount of paid out ESST
• Requests to use ESST
• Remote or hybrid work agreements
• ESST acknowledgement forms
• ESST policy and any employee handbook

Employers must provide this information to the City upon request. 

Employees begin accruing ESST on their start date. They may use ESST after they have worked 80 hours. Employees must accrue one hour of ESST for every 30 hours worked. In any given year, employees must be allowed to accrue up to 48 hours. Employees can accrue and carry over up to 80 hours after their first year. An employer can choose to allow employees to carry over more. Unused ESST carries over from year to year unless an employer pays it out.

Yes. This is known as frontloading. Frontloading gives the employee access to the maximum number of hours that they would be allowed to accrue that year, at the beginning of the year. 

If an employer pays out ESST at the end of the year, they're required to frontload a maximum of 48 hours of ESST. If an employer does not pay out ESST at the end of the year, they can frontload a maximum of 80 hours. Employers can choose to frontload hours for different classifications of employees. However, they must frontload the same number of hours for all employees for whom they are frontloading ESST. 

Yes, if employers choose to frontload ESST. If an employer pays an employee for unused ESST at the end of a year, the employee is paid at their standard hourly rate (which must in turn comply with the City of Saint Paul Minimum Wage Ordinance). 

Employers are not required to pay out unused ESST upon an employee’s termination, resignation, retirement, or other separation from employment so long as that employer has met their obligations to the ordinance.

Yes, if they are rehired within 180 days after quitting or leaving. In this case, their ESST must be reinstated and they will continue to accrue ESST upon rehire.