Minnesota

The chapters that govern

Most of what a Minnesota employee needs is in a handful of chapters of the Minnesota Statutes. Each link goes to the Office of the Revisor of Statutes, which publishes the current text.

• Minn. Stat. ch. 177 — Labor Standards and Wages: minimum wage, overtime, breaks, and enforcement by the Department of Labor and Industry.
• Minn. Stat. ch. 181 — Employment: final paychecks, the Whistleblower Act (§§ 181.931–181.935), the Personnel Record Review and Access Act (§§ 181.960–181.966), the noncompete ban (§ 181.988).
• Minn. Stat. ch. 181A — Child Labor Standards Act: hours, occupations, and permits for minors.
• Minn. Stat. ch. 363A — Minnesota Human Rights Act: the Minnesota Human Rights Act — discrimination, harassment, reprisal, and the Department of Human Rights charge process.
• Minn. Stat. ch. 268 — Unemployment insurance: benefits, quit and discharge determinations, appeals.
• Minn. Stat. ch. 268B — Family and Medical Benefits: the paid family and medical benefit insurance program.
• Minn. Stat. ch. 176 — Workers' compensation: work injuries.

The federal statutes alongside them

Federal law sits alongside these and mostly does not displace them. Where a guide on this site describes a federal rule, it says so.

• Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 203 — wages and hours
• Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e — race, color, religion, sex, national origin
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 630 — age
• Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12111 — disability
• Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. § 2611 — unpaid, job-protected leave

Four things that catch Minnesotans out

Minnesota's discrimination law covers employers the federal statutes do not

Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 16, defines an employer as

a person who has one or more employees.

The federal thresholds are fifteen employees for Title VII (42 U.S.C. § 2000e(b)) and the ADA (42 U.S.C. § 12111(5)(A)), twenty for the ADEA (29 U.S.C. § 630(b)), and fifty for the FMLA (29 U.S.C. § 2611(4)(A)(i)), each counted across twenty or more calendar weeks. A six-person Minnesota company is outside all four and inside chapter 363A.

Noncompetes signed since July 1, 2023, are void

Minn. Stat. § 181.988, subd. 2(a):

Any covenant not to compete contained in a contract or agreement is void and unenforceable

subject to sale-of-business and dissolution exceptions. Laws 2023, ch. 53, art. 6, § 1, made it "effective July 1, 2023, and applies to contracts and agreements entered into on or after that date." It does not reach nondisclosure or nonsolicitation agreements, which subd. 1(a) carves out, and its definition of employee includes independent contractors.

The break rules changed on January 1, 2026

Minn. Stat. § 177.254, subd. 1, now requires a meal break of at least 30 minutes at six or more consecutive hours; the prior text required "sufficient time to eat" at eight. Section 177.253, subd. 1, now sets a rest break of

at least 15 minutes or enough time to utilize the nearest convenient restroom, whichever is longer

within each four consecutive hours. Both gained a liquidated-damages remedy. Laws 2025, 1st Spec. Sess., ch. 6, art. 5, §§ 1–5.

Your personnel file is free, in seven working days

Minn. Stat. § 181.961, subd. 2(a) and 2(d):

The employer may not charge a fee for the copy.

Guides

• Every Minnesota Employment Deadline in One Table — and Not One of Them Is the Same Number
• Minnesota Has One Minimum Wage for Every Employer, and No Employer May Take a Tip Credit Against It
• Your Tips Are Your Sole Property Under Minnesota Law, and a Service Charge Is a Tip Unless the Customer Was Told Otherwise in Bold Type
• Minnesota Bars Your Employer From Docking Your Pay for Breakage, a Cash Shortage, or a Claimed Debt Unless You Authorized It in Writing After the Loss
• Minnesota's Payday Rule Is 31 Days, and the Penalty the Commissioner Can Collect for Late Wages Has No 15-Day Ceiling — the Legislature Deleted It in 2019
• Minnesota's break rules got numbers on January 1, 2026 — and being salaried is not what makes you exempt from overtime
• A Minnesota Discrimination Claim Is Usually Lost on the Calendar, Not the Merits
• If you signed a Minnesota noncompete on or after July 1, 2023, it is void — and that does not touch your NDA
• Was My Firing Illegal? Minnesota's Honest Answer Is Usually No, and the Exceptions Are a Short, Specific List
• Minnesota Employment Law Changed in Every Session From 2023 Through 2026 — Here Is the Dated List, Act by Act
• Wage Theft Is a Named Crime in Minnesota and the Felony Line Sits at $1,000 — but Nothing in Chapter 177 or Chapter 181 Refers Your Case to a Prosecutor
• Salary Is One of Three Federal Tests, Not the Test — and the Federal Salary Level Is Back at $684 a Week Because Two Courts Vacated the 2024 Rule
• Minnesota Proves a Discrimination Case With a 1973 Federal Framework It Adopted in 1978 — and in 1988 It Refused the Federal Escape Hatch That Goes With It
• The Exit Meeting: Every Document Handed Across the Table Runs on Its Own Statute and Its Own Clock
• No Minnesota Statute Creates a Right to Cash Out Unused PTO — the Answer Is in the Policy's Own Words, and the Supreme Court Said So in 2007
• Conciliation Court Is a Division of the District Court, Not a Lesser One — and Its $20,000 Ceiling and Eleven Exclusions Decide Which Employment Claims Fit
• Waiting, Call Time, and Cleaning Time Are Hours Worked in Minnesota — and Under Federal Law the Question Is Whether the Employer Knew, Not Whether It Approved
• Employment Misconduct Is a Closed Statutory Definition — and the Legislature Narrowed It on October 1, 2019, After Every Supreme Court Decision This Page Cites
• Minnesota Has Its Own Health-Coverage Continuation Statute, and It Does Not Have COBRA's 20-Employee Threshold
• The Department of Labor and Industry Can Order Double Back Pay; Your Own Lawsuit Gets Mandatory Attorney Fees — and the Two Routes Do Not Cover the Same Statutes
• The Veterans Preference Act Is a Public-Employment Discharge Statute: Two Grounds for Removal, a 30-Day Clock, and a Waiver That Takes the Rest of Your Remedies With It
• Being Fired for a Report Is Not One of the Two Ways Minnesota Takes Unemployment Away — and Whatever the Judge Decides Cannot Be Used in Your Whistleblower Case
• Minnesota's noncompete ban did not touch your NDA or your nonsolicit — and no Minnesota employment or civil-rights statute voids a settlement NDA about harassment
• Filing a Charge With the Department of Human Rights Does Not Hand Your Case to the Department
• Minnesota Gives You Fifteen Working Days to Demand the Reason You Were Fired — and the Duty Never Arises Unless You Ask in Writing
• Minnesota Puts Your Rate of Pay in a Signed Document at the Start of Employment — and Gives You Three Ways to Enforce It
• Ban the Box Moves the Question, It Does Not Remove It — and the Only Penalty a Private Minnesota Employer Faces for Asking Too Early Is an Administrative Fine
• Conciliation and Mediation Are Two Different Things at the Department of Human Rights — and Only One of Them Is the Commissioner's Own Statutory Duty
• A Release of an Age Claim Has to Clear Eight Statutory Requirements, and the Employer Carries the Burden of Proving It Did
• The EEOC Charge and the Department of Human Rights Charge Are Two Filings, and Neither Statute Says That Making One Makes the Other
• Minnesota's Commission Statute Is Written for Independent Contractors — If You Were an Employee, § 181.145 Is Not Your Section
• In a Minnesota Civil Case, ADR Is the Default and the Court Orders It — Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 114 Names Ten Processes and Mediation Is One of Them
• The Minnesota Whistleblower Act Says Nothing About Releases — and the Human Rights Act's 15-Day Rescission Right Reaches Only Chapter 363A
• Most Minnesota Employment Statutes Never Say the Word Jury — Where They Are Silent, the Answer Comes From the Constitution and Rule 38.01
• Every Minnesota Whistleblower Question, and the Page That Answers It
• Misconduct Your Employer Discovers After Firing You Does Not Erase the Claim — It Cuts Off Reinstatement and Front Pay and Stops the Back-Pay Clock on the Day of Discovery
• The 2024 Amendment Untethered Harassment From Sex. It Did Not Touch 'Severe or Pervasive.'
• On Almost Every Rule an Employee Cares About, Minnesota Law Is Broader Than Federal Law — With Two Places It Is Narrower
• A severance release does not buy your employer everything — Minnesota and federal law wall off several claims you cannot sign away
• Your Last Paycheck in Minnesota: The 24-Hour Clock Does Not Start Until You Demand It in Writing
• Your Minnesota Employer Has Seven Working Days to Hand You Your Personnel File, Free
• No Minnesota Employment Statute Requires a Demand Letter Before Suit — Two Sections Attach a Consequence to Sending One, and Chapter 541 Says Nothing at All About Tolling Agreements
• A Settlement Agreement Is a Contract — and Minn. Stat. § 572.35 Can Make a Mediated One Nonbinding on Its Face
• Minnesota's Whistleblower Act Protects a Report of a Legal Violation — Not Every Complaint About a Boss
• Minnesota Defines Whistleblower "Good Faith" by What It Is Not — and in Six Years of Published Decisions Only One Court Construed the Definition
• Minnesota Makes the Employer Prove You Could Have Earned the Money — the Duty to Mitigate Is a Defense the Employer Carries, Not an Element You Have to Disprove
• Minnesota's Whistleblower Act Names Three Places a Report Can Go — Your Employer, Any Governmental Body, or a Law Enforcement Official — and a Second Clause That Only Works When the Government Asks You First
• A Protected Report Does Not Have to Name the Statute — but the Statute Has to Exist
• Firing Is One of Nine Things the Whistleblower Act Forbids — and the Word That Does the Most Work Is "Penalize"
• Quitting Counts as Being Fired in Minnesota Only if the Employer Meant to Make You Quit — Intolerable Conditions Alone Are Half the Test
• Minnesota Has No Job-Duties Exception to the Whistleblower Act — and the Case That Says So Is the Case in Which the Employee Lost His Verdict
• Minnesota's Accommodation Duty Turns on 15 Employees and a Job You Can Do — Not on Whether You Are "On Disability"
• A Minnesota Whistleblower Claim Is Proved in Three Elements and Two Burden Shifts — and in 2022 the Supreme Court Declined to Say Whether That Framework Should Survive
• The Employer's Favorite Arguments Have Names — and in Minnesota Some of Them Are Adopted Law, Some Are Federal Doctrines No Retrieved Minnesota Decision Has Taken Up
• Close Timing Gets a Minnesota Whistleblower Claim Past Step One and No Further — the Supreme Court Said So in 2022
• Minn. Stat. § 181.935 Is Three Paragraphs Long — Damages, Fees, Reinstatement, Expungement, and a $25-a-Day Penalty — and It Says Nothing at All About Punitive Damages
• "The Minnesota Whistleblower Deadline Is Two Years" Is Wrong for the Report Claim — It Is Six, and the Supreme Court Overruled the Decision That Said Two
• The Federal Whistleblower Deadlines Are Counted in Days — Thirty of Them for a Safety Complaint
• A Minnesota Whistleblower Claim Goes Straight to District Court — No Agency, No Charge, No Right-to-Sue Letter — and It Is Commenced by Service, Not by Filing
• Seven Different Bodies Decide Minnesota Employment Cases, and Only Two of Them Are Courts You Sue In
• Minnesota earned sick and safe time covers your family, and an attendance point charged for using it is unlawful by name
• Minnesota's Trade Secrets Act protects secret information, not what you learned how to do — and the element employers most often fail is one of their own
• Minnesota Unemployment: Being Fired Does Not Disqualify You, and the First Hearing Is the Only One You Get
• Minnesota Has a Second Whistleblower Statute, and It Pays Double Back Pay — Minn. Stat. § 15C.145
• Refusing an Illegal Order Is Protected Twice in Minnesota, and the Two Protections Do Not Use the Same Standard
• A Public Employee in Minnesota Has More Statutory Protection Than a Private One — and Less Constitutional Protection Than People Assume
• A Minnesota Health Care Worker Who Reports Maltreatment Has at Least Four Statutes, and Only One of Them Is the Whistleblower Act
• Minnesota Gives You a Written Right to Refuse Dangerous Work — and 30 Days to Complain If You Are Punished for Using It
• The Human Rights Act's Damages Provision Does Not Start With Back Pay — It Starts With Compensatory Damages Up to Three Times Actual Damages, and Back Pay Is an Optional Add-On to Reinstatement
• Quitting Does Not End Your Unemployment Claim in Minnesota — the Legislature Wrote Ten Exceptions Into the Same Sentence That Creates the Disqualification
• A Minnesota employer may say far more in a reference than dates of employment — including documented theft, harassment, or violence — and § 181.967 is a shield for the employer, not a gag rule
• Minnesota Writes Retaliation Protection Eight Separate Times, and Each Statute Protects a Named Act — Complaining to HR About a Boss Is Not, by Itself, One of Them
• A Minnesota Handbook Is Not a Contract Because It Exists — It Is a Contract When Its Words Are Definite Enough to Be an Offer
• Since August 1, 2023, a Minnesota Employer May Not Punish You for Walking Out of a Political or Religious Meeting — and the Clock to Sue Is 90 Days
• Minnesota Bans the Salary-History Question and Requires a Pay Range in the Posting — but the Two Rules Sit in Different Chapters and Only One of Them Names a Remedy
• Minnesota Bans the Honesty Test, Not Only the Polygraph — and the Section Carries No Theft-Investigation Exception
• Minnesota's Age Protection Starts at 18, Not at 40 — and a Second Statute Puts Mandatory Retirement at 70
• An arbitration clause moves your claim to a different forum; it does not delete the claim — and Minnesota's own attempt to void these clauses was held preempted in 1995
• Repeating Your Employer's False Reason to a Job Interviewer Can Be the "Publication" in a Minnesota Defamation Case — but Compulsion, Foreseeability, and Proof of the Interviews Are All Required
• Minnesota Says "Materially Limits" Because the Legislature Struck "Substantially" in 1989 — and the Supreme Court Said That Lowered the Bar
• Signing a 1099 agreement does not make you a contractor in Minnesota — being asked to sign one is itself a violation
• The Human Rights Act Protects Creed and Religion Without Defining Either, Writes No Duty to Accommodate Religious Practice, and Never Mentions Immigration Status
• In 2023 Minnesota Pulled Gender Identity Out of the Sexual-Orientation Definition and Made It Its Own Protected Class
• The FMLA Has Three Gates Minnesota's Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Does Not — 12 Months, 1,250 Hours, and 50 Employees Within 75 Miles
• USERRA Has No Employer-Size Floor, No Length-of-Service Requirement, and No Statute of Limitations — and Congress Raised Its Damages on January 2, 2025
• Chapter 181 Names Eleven Leaves — Seven Have No Remedy Section, Organ-Donation Leave Reaches Only Public Employers, and the Blood-Donation Section Requires Nothing
• Workers' Compensation Is Not Your Only Remedy: Minn. Stat. § 176.82 Puts Two Separate Civil Claims Outside the Exclusivity Bar, and Only One of Them Reaches a Small Employer
• Minnesota's Genetic-Testing Statute Reaches an Employer With One Employee and Allows Treble Damages — GINA Starts at Fifteen and Has No Disparate-Impact Claim at All
• A Minnesota Public Employee Is Written Out of the Personnel Record Act — and Chapter 13 Gives a Correction Right the Private Statute Does Not
• An Oral Job Promise Is Not Void in Minnesota Because Nobody Wrote It Down — the Statute of Frauds Reaches Only Agreements That by Their Terms Cannot Be Performed Within One Year
• A Minnesota employer with one employee owes pregnancy accommodations and 12 weeks of parenting leave — and FMLA leave can be counted against those 12 weeks
• Minnesota's Employment Fee-Shifting Statutes Mostly Run One Direction — and Rule 68 Shifts Costs and Disbursements, Not the Other Side's Attorney Fees
• Minnesota paid leave is not a new-parent program — bonding is one of six qualifying reasons, and the benefit is money, not job-protected weeks
• A Minnesota employer may test you only under a written policy and only in five situations — and a first positive confirmatory test is not by itself a lawful reason to fire you
• Firing You Over Jury Duty Is Criminal Contempt in Minnesota — and Four Other Civic Absences the Legislature Protected by Name