As I wrote about earlier this May, the City of Minneapolis has enacted a sick and safe leave (SSL) ordinance, effective July 1, 2017. However, just last Friday, September 23, 2016, after tireless work by the Minneapolis Regional Chamber’s Workforce Fairness Coalition, the Minneapolis City Council adopted several revisions to the ordinance that are helpful to employers doing work in Minneapolis. The City’s presentation regarding the amendments to the ordinance can be found here and the amended regulations here. Because I know you are overworked (which is why you are reading this and not the ordinance in the first place), here are the revisions in a nutshell:

• Defines “Regular Rate of Pay” – and importantly excludes tips, commissions, expense reimbursement; premium pay, bonuses, special occasion gifts, profit sharing payments, and retirement contributions.
• Accrual of time is in one hour increments (no fractions).
• Employers may front load SSL by providing 48 hours or more to employees following their 90 days of employment and 80 hours of SSL each year thereafter.
• SSL must be recorded recorded as normal payroll practices or policies but no less than monthly.
• SSL must be compensated at same hourly rate with same benefits as was scheduled to work when used SSL.
• No longer must track hours of employees who “occasionally” work in the City (but, there is a presumption of a violation if no records are maintained).
• Clarified that additional PTO does not need to be given for SSL if current PTO is sufficient to meet the accrual requirements for SSL and allows the use consistent with the Ordinance.

Finally, the City is working on releasing a FAQ document in October and creating a 16 member Workplace Advisory Committee, which you can apply to be on here.