Category: Employment Law

A compliance order from the Department of Labor and Industry can include an equal liquidated amount under Minn. Stat. § 177.27, subd. 7. In a private action, the equal-additional-amount remedy applies to claims covered by § 177.27, subd. 8, meaning violations of sections 177.21 to 177.44 and § 181.165, while claims under the chapter 181 sections listed in § 181.171, subd. 1 carry the damages supplied by the section violated together with compensatory damages and mandatory fees under subdivision 3.

You file by contacting the Labor Standards Division of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry at 651-284-5075 or dli.laborstandards@state.mn.us. There is no form to complete first and no filing fee. An investigator reaches out within two business days and takes the intake over the phone.

No. Minn. Stat. § 181.032, paragraph (f) requires an employer to provide any written changes to the information in your wage notice, which includes your rate of pay, prior to the date the changes take effect.

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.

Minnesota’s Payment of Wages Act is the group of statutes at the front of Minn. Stat. chapter 181 governing how and when you are paid, what your employer must tell you in writing, and what may be taken out of your check. It is separate from the minimum wage and overtime rules, which sit in chapter 177.

Under Minnesota law your tips are your property, not your employer’s. An employer that keeps them, requires you to share them, or makes an unauthorized deduction from them is taking money that the statute assigns to you.