- Date:
- Category: Employment Law
At the start of employment, a Minnesota employer must give you a written notice setting out how you will be paid. Minn. Stat. § 181.032, paragraph (d) lists nine items it must contain. You must sign it, the employer must keep the signed copy, and you can require it in a language other than English.
Most people file it and forget it. It is worth keeping, because it is the employer’s own written statement of what it promised to pay you, and that is what a later dispute about your rate turns on.
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The Nine Required Items
| # | What the notice must state |
| 1 | The rate or rates of pay and the basis, including whether you are paid by hour, shift, day, week, salary, piece, commission or another method, and the specific application of any additional rates |
| 2 | Allowances claimed for permitted meals and lodging, if any |
| 3 | Paid vacation, sick time or other paid time-off accruals, and the terms of use |
| 4 | Your employment status, and whether you are exempt from minimum wage, overtime and other provisions of chapter 177, and on what basis |
| 5 | A list of deductions that may be made from your pay |
| 6 | The number of days in the pay period, the regularly scheduled payday, and the payday on which you will receive your first payment |
| 7 | The employer’s legal name, and its operating name if different |
| 8 | The physical address of the employer’s main office or principal place of business, and a mailing address if different |
| 9 | The employer’s telephone number |
Source: Minn. Stat. § 181.032, paragraph (d). Verified September 5, 2026.
Item 1 carries more than it looks. The requirement to state the specific application of any additional rates means an employer using shift differentials, weekend rates, on-call rates or a separate overtime rate has to explain when each applies rather than listing them.
Item 4 is worth reading closely. It is the employer’s written position on whether you are exempt and why, recorded at the start of employment, and it is a useful document if that classification is later disputed.
Signature, Recordkeeping and Language
The notice is not simply handed over. Paragraph (e) requires the employer to keep a copy signed by the employee acknowledging receipt.
The notice must be provided in English, and the English version must include text supplied by the commissioner telling employees they may request the notice in a particular language by indicating so on the form. If you request another language, the employer must provide it in that language. The commissioner supplies the text and assists employers with translation.
That provision matters in workplaces where the pay conversation happens in one language and the paperwork arrives in another. If you were given a notice you could not read and asked for a translation you never received, that is a gap in the employer’s compliance rather than in yours.
Changes Must Come Before They Take Effect
Paragraph (f) is the provision with the sharpest practical edge. An employer must provide the employee any written changes to the information in the notice prior to the date the changes take effect.
Read that against item 1. A change to your rate of pay is a change to the information in the notice, so it must be given to you in writing before the new rate starts. An employer that reduces a rate and tells you afterward, or tells you nothing and lets you find it on a pay stub, has not met the requirement.
The same applies to the other items. A change to the payday, to the deductions that may be made, or to your exempt status is a change to the notice.
Minneapolis Adds to This
Employees covered by the Minneapolis Wage Theft Prevention Ordinance get more.
The city requires the notice to include everything state law requires plus sick and safe time information, specifically the accrual rate or frontloaded amount and the earliest date you may begin using it. The city also requires the employer to keep a record of when the initial notice was provided, and requires the employee to sign notices of later changes, neither of which the state statute requires. The signature requirement for changes has an exception: it does not apply to a wage increase where the employee received advance notice of the amount of the increase and the date it would occur. Coverage under that ordinance turns on performing at least 80 hours of work in a year inside Minneapolis.
Why the Notice Decides Disputes
Where a wage dispute turns on the rate that was agreed, the notice records that figure in writing at the outset.
Where an employee says the agreed rate was one figure and the employer says another, the signed notice documents what the employer itself stated the rate would be. Where an employer applied a lower rate than the notice states, the shortfall is the difference, and the employer’s own document establishes the higher figure. Where a rate was cut without written notice beforehand, the notice plus the absence of a change document is the record of what happened.
Minn. Stat. § 181.13 makes this concrete at separation. It provides that wages are actually earned and unpaid if the employee was not paid for all time worked at the regular rate of pay or at the rate required by law, including any applicable contract or other legal authority, whichever rate of pay is greater, and allows an employee to seek payment at the highest rate the contract or applicable law provides.
If You Never Received One
Many employees never got a notice, and its absence is a violation in itself.
Section 181.032 is among the sections listed in Minn. Stat. § 181.171, subd. 1, which sends a violation straight to district court with no agency detour required. An employer found liable owes the damages the violated section specifies, plus compensatory damages and other appropriate relief, and subdivision 3 makes the reasonable costs, disbursements, witness fees and attorney fees the court’s obligation to order, not a discretionary call.
Where no notice exists, the rate is established from the other available evidence, including the earnings statements § 181.032 requires the employer to provide and what the parties actually did and said.
Retaliation for asserting these rights is separately unlawful under Section 181.03, subd. 6, which includes warning your employer that you plan to complain, and carries a civil penalty of $700 to $3,000 per violation.
What to Keep
Keep the signed notice, every written change to it, and your earnings statements. Those three sets of documents, held together, cover what you were promised, what changed and when, and what you were actually paid.
If you are missing the notice, ask your employer for a copy of the signed version they are required to keep. The request is reasonable, it is quick to make in writing, and the answer is informative either way.
Our pages on Minneapolis wage disputes and Saint Paul wage claims explain what a claim involves once you have those documents together.
Frequently Asked Questions
My employer never gave me a wage notice. Is that illegal?
Section 181.032(d) requires the notice at the start of employment, so the failure to provide one is a violation. It is also enforceable through a civil action under § 181.171 with mandatory costs and attorney fees where a violation is found.
Can I get the notice in a language other than English?
Yes. The notice must be provided in English, and the English version must include text telling you that you may request it in a particular language by indicating so on the form. If you make that request, the employer must provide the notice in the language you requested.
Does the notice have to be on paper?
The statute requires a written notice and a copy signed by the employee acknowledging receipt. Minneapolis guidance treats electronic signatures as acceptable for the city’s notice. The practical point is that a signed copy has to exist and the employer has to keep it.
My employer changed my rate and told me the same day. Is that allowed?
Paragraph (f) requires written changes to be provided prior to the date the change takes effect. Notice given on or after the effective date does not meet that requirement, and the rate that applies to work already performed is the earlier one.
I signed the notice. Does that mean I agreed to everything in it?
The statute describes the signature as acknowledging receipt of the notice. Signing records that you were given the document. It does not convert the terms into a contract you have accepted, and it does not waive rights the wage statutes provide regardless of what any document says.
This article explains Minnesota law and a Minneapolis ordinance in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice about your situation, speak with a licensed attorney.
