Imagine you are dropping off your child at daycare (or your pet dog or lizard, whichever is applicable to you) and you see that the other parents have brought in freshly baked homemade treats. Auuuuuugh! Today is the bake sale at daycare! You rush back to your vehicle and dig around the backseat. You’re relieved when you find a bag of Doritos that is unopened but crumpled up. You’ll have to make do with it, right? The show must continue, even if your child (or pet dog or lizard), is in a state of embarrassment. You don’t win the first prize that day or sell any of your products.
Face it. Sometimes we all forget “the memo”. Avoidable mistakes are often embarrassing, uncomfortable and costly. This article will help your law firm and you be proactive in preparing for the new Minnesota change: Earned Sick and Safe Time.
What exactly do we need to prepare for?
The Minnesota legislature passed a plan in 2023 that will require employers to give their employees “earned sick time” and paid time off . This law will take effect on January 1, 2024. Employers, including law firms, are preparing to meet the new requirements.
What employers are required to provide earned sick and safe time?
Some laws only apply to certain employers. The Family and Medical Leave Act, for example, only applies to employers who have 50 or more employees. Earned Sick Time in Minnesota is applicable to employers with 1 or more employees. Small businesses and small law firms are not exempt.
What must be provided to employees?
Minnesota’s laws on earned sick time and safe time require that full-time and part-time employees (but not independent contractors who work full or part time) earn an hour for every 30 working hours. Employees can only earn up to 48 hours of “earned sick and safe time” per year, unless their employer allows them more.
If an employee chooses to use his or her earned sick time and safety time, the employer is required to pay him at the standard hourly rate. This is calculated for salaried, full-time workers based on a 40 hour workweek.
What can employees do with this time?
Employees may use earned sick or safe time to address the following: 1) the employee’s physical or psychological illness, treatment, or preventative measures; 2) a family members physical or mental illnesses, treatment, or preventative measures; 3) time off for domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking by the employee, or a member in the employee’s family; 4) the closure of a workplace, or the school, or care facility of a relative due to bad weather, or other public emergencies; and 5) communicable
It is possible for an employee to choose to take time off for the care of a close family member. The law defines the term “family” very broadly. This includes blood relatives, married family members, spouses and partners, and individuals “whose close relationship with the employee is equivalent to a familial relationship.”
What happens if an employee does not use all of the earned hours?
Some employees may not be able to use their entire earned sick or safe time during a given year. You should know that all unused and accrued sick time and safe time can be “rolled-over” to the following year. Employers are allowed to cap the number of hours earned at 80.
Employers can avoid the “rollover” of hours by “frontloading”. This is done at the start of the year so that the employee has the time available for use immediately. The employer must pay out any unused sick and safe time at the end of the year if the employer has frontloaded the minimum 48-hours. If an employer frontloads up to 80 hours of safe and sick time, there is no need for a rollover or payment of unused time.
It is important to inform employees of the start date for their work and how their hours will be carried over to the next year. You may want to consider whether you’re using a fiscal year or a calendar-based system. Or, you might keep track of the dates each employee started working. No matter how you calculate the year, employees must know that it is a 12-month period.
What Happens After Separation or Termination of Employment?
An employer does not have to pay an employee’s accrued safe and sick leave if the employee leaves or is terminated. If an employee is hired again within 180 days of the termination, they must be paid their accrued and unused safe and sick time.
It’s Time to Prepare
Minnesota’s earned safe and sick time will be in effect on January 1, 2024. Now is the perfect time to get prepared! Although Doritos can be a tasty snack in a hurry, no one wants to bring a crumpled bag of Doritos at a bake sale.
Bassford Remele can help you if you have questions about how to prepare your firm for the changes.
Are you prepared? The post A Law Firm’s Introduction to Minnesota’s Earned Sick Time and Safe Time appeared initially on Attorney at Law Magazine.