Minnesota Workplace Compliance
News & Resources
Business moves differently in Minnesota. From the Twin Cities metro area to rural worksites, northern winters, busy highways, and seasonal weather extremes, employers need to be ready for changing conditions. To succeed in the North Star State, businesses need resilience, preparation, and a strong commitment to keeping their people safe.
That commitment includes navigating Minnesota’s workforce laws and regulations. The state continues to focus on employee safety, wage and hour compliance, paid leave, workplace protections, harassment prevention, and more. For employers, falling out of compliance can result in costly fines, litigation, and reputational risk. Learn what you need to know to protect your employees and stay compliant with Minnesota law.
Stay on top of safety and compliance the right way with this Minnesota-specific information, but be sure to seek legal counsel when evaluating how these regulations may directly impact your business. Wherever available, KPA products are updated with the latest government notices and posters for employers.
Minnesota HR News
Who: Bloomington, Minnesota employers
When: Effective immediately
On April 27, 2026, the Bloomington City Council voted to repeal the city’s Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) Ordinance, effective immediately. The repeal was driven by the city’s determination that the statewide Minnesota ESST law, which has since been amended twice, now adequately provides the same protections the local ordinance was designed to guarantee. Bloomington is the second Minnesota city to take this step, following Duluth, which repealed its local ordinance effective January 18, 2024.
The city acknowledged that maintaining a parallel local ordinance had become administratively burdensome, requiring significant staff time to track, review, and update the local rules each time the state law was amended.
Employees in Bloomington do not lose their sick and safe time protections as a result of the repeal. Those protections are now governed exclusively by Minnesota’s statewide ESST law, which requires employers to provide one hour of sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours per year. To be eligible, employees must work at least 80 hours per year and must not be classified as independent contractors.
Under the statewide law, employees may use accrued leave for:
- Their own or a family member’s mental or physical illness, treatment, or preventive care;
- Absences related to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking of the employee or a family member;
- Closures of the workplace, school, or care facility due to weather or a public health emergency;
- Situations where a health authority has determined the employee or a family member poses a communicable disease risk; and
- Funeral arrangements, memorial attendance, or financial and legal matters following a family member’s death.
With Bloomington’s repeal, attention is turning to Minneapolis and Saint Paul—both of which also maintain local ESST ordinances that have drifted out of alignment with the evolving state law. Employers with Minnesota operations are watching closely to see whether those cities will follow suit.
How:
- Update your paid sick and safe leave policies to remove any references to the Bloomington ordinance and ensure they reflect the requirements of Minnesota’s statewide ESST law exclusively for employees working in Bloomington.
- Remove or revise any workplace postings, employee notices, handbook provisions, or other communications that specifically reference the now-repealed Bloomington ordinance.
- Align your notice, complaint, and recordkeeping procedures with the statewide framework, including directing employees to file any ESST-related complaints with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry’s Labor Standards Division rather than with Bloomington.
- Watch for final rules from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry regarding the statewide ESST law, which may provide additional interpretive guidance affecting compliance obligations.
Additional Resources:
An Ordinance Amending City Code Chapter 23 Relating to Earned Sick and Safe Time
Minnesota Department of Labor FAQs: Earned sick and safe time (ESST)
