Minnesota: Bereavement Leave Requirements
The short answer
Yes, through Minnesota's existing earned sick and safe time bank rather than a separate bereavement allotment. A covered employee may use accrued paid ESST to arrange or attend funeral services or a memorial, or to address financial or legal matters after a family member's death. Employees generally accrue one hour per 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours each year across all ESST purposes.
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This is the general rule in Minnesota. Ezel applies current Minnesota law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and type of leave | Minn. Stat. § 181.9447, subd. 1(1)(iv), expressly permits death-related use of accrued earned sick and safe time; no separate bereavement bank |
|---|---|
| Covered employers and employees | Employers with 1+ employees, including state and local government; U.S. government excluded. Employee must be anticipated to work at least 80 hours/year in Minnesota; temporary and part-time workers included. Excludes contractors, specified emergency volunteers/on-call workers, elected officials, and farm labor employed 28 days or fewer/year |
| Qualifying deaths, relationships, and events | Death of broadly defined family member; covers funeral or memorial arrangements and attendance plus resulting financial or legal matters. Family includes listed relatives, spouse/domestic-partner relatives, a blood or close-association equivalent, and one annually designated person. No separate grieving or reproductive-loss category |
| Leave amount, timing, and caps | Existing ESST bank: 1 hour per 30 worked, up to 48 hours accrued annually; use as accrued. Carryover is subject to an 80-hour total-bank cap or statutory frontloading alternatives. No extra per-death amount or completion window; payroll increment applies, with a 15-minute floor and 4-hour maximum required increment |
| Paid or unpaid; use of existing leave | Paid at the employee's statutory base rate, at least the applicable minimum wage. A compliant PTO or other paid-leave system may serve as ESST; death-related use draws from that existing balance, not an additional allotment |
| Notice, documentation, and proof | Foreseeable use: no more than 7 days' advance notice; unforeseeable use: notice as reasonably required. Employer must give employees its written reasonable notice policy. Reasonable documentation only after more than 2 consecutive scheduled workdays; the statute does not impose an automatic death-document requirement |
| Job protection, attendance, and confidentiality | No replacement-worker requirement; retaliation and discrimination prohibited; return at the same pay rate with automatic pay-scale adjustments and retained accrued benefits/seniority. Protected ESST cannot generate attendance points leading to adverse action. Employee-supplied information has restricted disclosure |
| Enforcement, remedies, and deadlines | DLI enforcement plus a private civil action within 3 years. Civil relief includes all damages, costs, reasonable attorney fees, injunctions, and equitable relief. Denied ESST use triggers the value of time denied plus an equal amount as liquidated damages; inadequate records can trigger 48 hours per affected year plus an equal amount |
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Minnesota uses the existing ESST bank
Minnesota does not create a new number of bereavement days after each death.
Minn. Stat. § 181.9447, subd. 1(1)(iv), instead lets an employee use accrued
earned sick and safe time to arrange or attend funeral services or a memorial,
or to address financial or legal matters arising after a family member's death.
That distinction affects the amount available. Under § 181.9446, an employee
generally earns one paid hour per 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours in a year, and
may use the time as it accrues. Carryover can build the total bank to 80 hours,
subject to statutory frontloading alternatives, but there is no separate
per-death award or special deadline for finishing death-related use.
Coverage, family, and pay
The ESST law reaches employers with at least one employee, including Minnesota
state and local government, but not the United States government. Temporary and
part-time workers are included when the employer anticipates at least 80 hours
of Minnesota work in a year. The statute excludes independent contractors,
specified volunteer or on-call emergency personnel, elected officials, and
certain short-term farm labor.
The family definition is broad. It covers children, spouses and registered
domestic partners, siblings, parents, grandchildren, grandparents, nieces and
nephews, aunts and uncles, children- and siblings-in-law, corresponding family
of a spouse or domestic partner, a blood relative or close-association
equivalent, and one person designated each year.
Death-related ESST is paid at the statutory base rate. A PTO or other paid-leave
system can serve as ESST if it supplies the same purposes and conditions. It is
still one existing paid-leave balance, not extra bereavement pay.
Notice, proof, and protection
For foreseeable use, an employer may demand no more than seven days' advance
notice. For unforeseeable use, it may require notice on a reasonable basis. An
employer using a notice procedure must put it in writing and give employees a
copy; it cannot deny ESST on that basis if it did not provide the policy.
Reasonable documentation may be requested only when ESST lasts more than two
consecutive scheduled workdays. Section 181.9447 does not make a death
certificate, obituary, or funeral program automatically due for every
death-related absence. The employer also may not require the employee to find a
replacement worker.
Retaliation and discrimination are prohibited. An employee returns at the same
pay rate, including automatic pay-scale adjustments, with accrued preleave
benefits and seniority retained. An attendance system may not count protected
ESST as an absence leading to retaliation or other adverse action. Information
the employee supplies may be disclosed only with the employee's request or
consent, by court or agency order, or as otherwise required by law.
What trips people up
Forty-eight hours is not a per-death amount. It is the ordinary annual ESST
accrual shared with every other covered health, safety, closure, and family-care
purpose.
Minnesota's death clause does not say “grieve.” It protects funeral or
memorial arrangements and attendance and resulting financial or legal matters.
It should not be read as Colorado's broader express grieving clause.
The family definition extends beyond the family tree. A blood relative or
someone whose close association is equivalent to family can qualify, and the
employee may designate one additional person annually.
Common questions
Can a Minnesota employee use ESST to handle an estate or other post-death paperwork?
Yes. Financial and legal matters arising after a covered family member's death
are expressly included.
Must the funeral and legal tasks occur within a set number of days?
The ESST statute gives no death-specific completion window. The practical limit
is the employee's available ESST balance and the ordinary notice and proof rules.
Can an employer require a four-hour block for a short memorial service?
It may not require an ESST increment longer than four hours. The usual payroll
increment applies, and the employer need not provide increments shorter than 15
minutes.
Statutes and sources
- Minn. Stat. §§ 181.9445-.9447. Current definitions, coverage, family,
accrual, pay, death-related use, notice, proof, increments, protection, and
confidentiality. Official definitions,
accrual, and
use sections (accessed
July 15, 2026). - Minn. Stat. § 181.944 and § 177.50. Private civil remedies, three-year
deadline, damages, and record-based relief. Individual
remedies and ESST
enforcement (accessed July
15, 2026). - Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Current administration and
plain-language ESST guidance. ESST FAQs
(accessed July 15, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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