What Counts as Hours Worked in Minnesota?

Hours worked includes all the time your employer requires or permits you to work, which reaches well beyond the hours between clock-in and clock-out. Training time, call time, cleaning time, waiting time and any other time you must be on the premises or performing duties are all counted.

That definition is a starting point for wage calculations because the hours actually worked determine both the minimum wage calculation and the overtime threshold.

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The Minnesota Rule in One Sentence

Minn. R. 5200.0120, subpart 1 provides that the minimum wage must be paid for all hours worked, and that hours worked include training time, call time, cleaning time, waiting time, or any other time when the employee must be either on the employer’s premises or involved in the performance of duties in connection with employment, or must remain on the premises until work is prepared or available.

The same subpart adds that rest periods of less than 20 minutes may not be deducted from total hours worked.

Two features of that rule are worth noticing. It is written around what the employer requires rather than around what the schedule says. And it is a floor for both the minimum wage and the overtime threshold, so hours that go uncounted reduce both.

What the Department Identifies as Compensable

The Department of Labor and Industry answers this question in its own guidance, and its list is concrete.

Time	Treatment	Authority
Preparation time before a shift	Hours worked	DLI wages and overtime guidance; Minn. R. 5200.0120
On-the-job training	Hours worked	DLI wages and overtime guidance
Opening and closing duties	Hours worked	DLI wages and overtime guidance
Required meetings	Hours worked	DLI wages and overtime guidance
Waiting time and call time	Hours worked where the employee must remain on the premises or so close that the time cannot be used effectively for personal purposes	Minn. R. 5200.0120, subps. 1 and 2
Rest periods under 20 minutes	May not be deducted from hours worked	Minn. R. 5200.0120, subp. 1
Bona fide meal periods	Not hours worked, if the employee is completely relieved of duty	Minn. R. 5200.0120, subp. 4
Holiday, vacation and sick hours	If paid under employer policy, they are not counted toward the overtime threshold because no work was performed	DLI overtime guidance

Source: Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, wages and overtime FAQs and overtime laws; Minn. R. 5200.0120. Verified September 6, 2026.

The last row catches people out. Paid leave is money in your pocket and it is still not time you worked, so a week with 32 worked hours and eight vacation hours has not reached an overtime threshold.

Work the Employer Did Not Ask For

Time you spend working counts even where nobody told you to do it, provided the employer knew or had reason to know.

The federal regulation states the principle plainly. Under 29 CFR 785.11, work the employer suffers or permits is work time even when it was not requested, and the reason the employee continued working is immaterial. Section 785.12 extends the same rule to work performed away from the premises or at home. Section 785.13 puts the obligation on the employer: it is the duty of management to exercise control and see that the work is not performed if it does not want it performed, it cannot sit back and accept the benefits without compensating for them, and the mere promulgation of a rule against such work is not enough.

That last sentence is the answer to a common employer response. A written policy saying employees must not work unrecorded hours does not convert those hours into unpaid ones. Management has to enforce the policy.

Waiting, On-Call and Off Duty

Whether time spent waiting is paid turns on how constrained you are.

Minn. R. 5200.0120, subpart 2 provides that an employee required to remain on the employer’s premises, or so close to the premises that the time cannot be used effectively for the employee’s own purposes, is working while on call. An employee who is not required to remain on or near the premises and is merely required to leave word where they can be reached is not working while on call.

Subpart 3 addresses the other side. Periods when the employee is completely relieved of duty and free to leave the premises for a definite period long enough to use for the employee’s own purposes are not hours worked. The words “definite period” carry weight, because being told to wait around without knowing for how long is not the same as being released.

Breaks and Meal Periods

Rest breaks and meal breaks are treated differently, and the difference is the source of a lot of unpaid time.

Rest periods of less than 20 minutes may not be deducted from hours worked. A bona fide meal period is not hours worked. Minn. R. 5200.0120, subpart 4 requires the employee to be completely relieved from duty for the purpose of eating a regular meal. An employee is not completely relieved if required to perform any duties, active or inactive, while eating, and where a meal period is frequently interrupted by calls to duty the period must be counted as hours worked.

Thirty minutes or more is ordinarily long enough for a bona fide meal period, and the rule notes that a shorter period may be adequate under special conditions. Our overview of Minnesota meal and rest break law covers the separate statutory break entitlements that took effect January 1, 2026.

Sleeping Time and Long Shifts

Shifts of 24 hours or more have their own rule, which matters in residential care, group homes and some public safety and transport roles.

Minn. R. 5200.0121 provides that an employee required to be on duty for less than 24 hours is working even when permitted to sleep or engage in personal activities while not busy. Where duty runs 24 hours or more, the employer and employee may agree to exclude bona fide meal periods and a regularly scheduled sleeping period of up to eight hours, provided adequate sleeping facilities are furnished and the employee can usually enjoy an uninterrupted sleeping period.

The exclusions come with limits. If a sleeping period is interrupted by a call to duty, the interruption counts as hours worked, and if the interruptions prevent the employee from getting at least five hours of sleep, the entire period counts. Where there is no express or implied agreement, the meal periods and up to eight hours of sleeping time are hours worked.

Why the Definition Decides the Claim

Hours worked is the input to almost every other wage calculation, which is why an error here spreads.

It determines whether your pay for the week satisfies the minimum wage and whether you crossed the applicable overtime threshold. Under Minn. R. 5200.0130, hours worked are also the denominator in the regular-rate calculation. Missing hours can therefore change the overtime calculation, although the effect on the regular rate depends on the employee’s pay structure and which remuneration belongs in the numerator.

An employee who works 30 minutes of unrecorded preparation time each shift, five shifts a week, has 2.5 unpaid hours a week. Across a year that is 130 hours, and if those hours would have fallen above an overtime threshold they carry the premium as well.

If Hours Are Missing From Your Record

Start with your earnings statements and any time records you can obtain.

Your earnings statements, required by Minn. Stat. § 181.032, must show your rate or rates of pay, gross pay, each deduction and net pay, and must also show your total hours worked in the pay period unless you are exempt from chapter 177. For employers subject to Minn. Stat. §§ 177.21 to 177.44, § 177.30 separately requires records of hours worked each day and each workweek, and Minn. R. 5200.0100 provides that hours worked each day includes the beginning and ending time of work each day.

Compare those against your own account of the day. A calendar or notes app recording when you actually started, when you actually finished, and what you were doing in between is evidence, and it is more useful started now than reconstructed later.

Our pages on unpaid wages in Minneapolis and Minnesota employment law cover what a claim involves once those records are together.

Frequently Asked Questions

My employer says I clocked in early on my own, so it will not pay for that time.

Work suffered or permitted is work time under 29 CFR 785.11, and 29 CFR 785.13 places the duty on management to prevent work it does not want performed. Whether the employer knew or had reason to know is the question, and a supervisor who could see you working, or a system that recorded the early punch, speaks to that.

Do I have to be paid for putting on protective gear?

Under federal law, pre-shift or post-shift donning and doffing can be compensable when the activity is integral and indispensable to the employee’s principal work, but not every clothing or gear change qualifies. Section 3(o) of the Fair Labor Standards Act also allows certain clothes-changing or washing time to be excluded under a collective bargaining agreement. Minnesota separately counts time spent performing duties connected to employment, so the specific gear, where it must be put on or removed, and what the job requires all matter.

Is my commute paid time?

Ordinary travel from home to work is not hours worked, whether you report to a fixed location or to different job sites. Travel during the workday, including travel from job site to job site, is a different question and is generally compensable.

Does my employer have to pay me for a meeting held after my shift?

A meeting the employer requires is working time, and DLI lists required meetings among the time that must be paid. Attendance that is genuinely voluntary, outside working hours, unrelated to your job and involving no productive work is treated differently under the federal criteria.

What if my employer has no records of my hours?

For an employer subject to Minn. Stat. §§ 177.21 to 177.44, § 177.30 requires the employer to keep them, and paragraph (d) permits the commissioner to determine wages from available evidence where the employer’s records are insufficient. Minn. Stat. § 177.27, subd. 3 contains the same authority. Your own contemporaneous record matters more in that situation, not less.

This article provides general information about Minnesota and federal rules on hours worked and is not legal advice. Whether particular time is compensable depends on facts specific to your job and your employer. Confirm current requirements with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, the U.S. Department of Labor or an attorney.