- Date:
- Category: Wage and Hour
At the end of every pay period, a Minnesota employer must give you an earnings statement covering that period. Minn. Stat. § 181.032 sets twelve items it must contain, and the employer may choose the format but not the contents.
Two of those fields do most of the work in a wage dispute: your rate or rates of pay and the basis on which you are paid, and, unless you are exempt from chapter 177, your total hours worked. Together they let anyone check the arithmetic, which is exactly why their absence is worth noticing.
You can reach out to us by calling (844) FERRARO.
The Twelve Required Items
| # | What the statement must show |
| 1 | Your name |
| 2 | The rate or rates of pay and the basis, meaning whether you are paid by hour, shift, day, week, salary, piece, commission or another method |
| 3 | Allowances claimed for permitted meals and lodging, if any |
| 4 | The total number of hours worked, unless you are exempt from chapter 177 |
| 5 | The total gross pay earned during the period |
| 6 | A list of deductions made from your pay |
| 7 | Any amount deducted for Minnesota Paid Leave under § 268B.14, subd. 3, and the amount the employer paid based on your wages under § 268B.14, subd. 1 |
| 8 | The net amount of pay after all deductions |
| 9 | The date the pay period ends |
| 10 | The employer’s legal name, and its operating name if different |
| 11 | The physical address of the employer’s main office or principal place of business, and a mailing address if different |
| 12 | The employer’s telephone number |
Source: Minn. Stat. § 181.032, paragraph (b). Verified September 5, 2026. The Paid Leave item at number 7 reflects an amendment effective January 1, 2026.
Electronic Statements and Your Right to Paper
An employer may provide the statement in writing or by electronic means. Electronic delivery comes with conditions.
An employer that chooses electronic statements must give you access to an employer-owned computer during your regular working hours to review and print them, and must keep statements available for review or printing for three years. A system that is only reachable from a personal device, or that drops statements after a few months, does not meet that requirement.
You also have the right to switch. If you give at least 24 hours notice that you want written statements, the employer must provide them in writing, and once you have given that notice the employer must comply on an ongoing basis rather than for a single pay period.
Why the Rate Line Matters
The rate line is the employer’s own written statement of what it agreed to pay you, repeated every pay period.
That makes it the first document to check in a dispute about the wrong rate. If your earnings statement shows a rate lower than the one in the written notice you were given at hire, that gap is documented on the employer’s own paperwork. If it shows a rate lower than the applicable minimum wage for the location where you worked, the shortfall is on the face of the statement.
The requirement to state the basis is equally useful. A statement that says “salary” for someone the employer treats as exempt is a starting point for asking whether the exemption tests are actually met, since being paid a salary does not by itself create an exemption.
Why the Hours Line Matters
Item 4 requires total hours worked unless you are exempt from chapter 177. For non-exempt employees, that line is the employer’s record of your time.
Two situations turn on it. Where the hours shown are fewer than the hours you actually worked, the difference is the claim, and the statement is evidence of what the employer recorded rather than of what happened. Where the hours are right but the pay does not match the rate multiplied by the hours, the arithmetic error is visible without any further records.
An automatic meal deduction shows up here. If your statement shows 37.5 hours for a week of five eight-hour shifts, the missing 2.5 hours is the deducted meal time, and the question becomes whether those breaks actually happened.
The Paid Leave Line Is New
Item 7, covering Minnesota Paid Leave amounts under § 268B.14, reflects an amendment to § 181.032 effective January 1, 2026. Statements issued from 2026 onward should show both the amount deducted from your pay and the amount the employer paid based on your wages.
If you are comparing an older statement against a current one and the line is new, that is why.
What a Missing Item Tells You
A statement missing required items is a violation in itself, and it also removes your ability to check the arithmetic from the outside.
The absence of adequate records is not the end of a claim. For employers subject to Minn. Stat. §§ 177.21 to 177.44, Minn. Stat. § 177.30, paragraph (d) and Minn. Stat. § 177.27, subd. 3 both provide that where the records maintained by the employer do not give enough information to determine the exact amount of back wages due, the commissioner may make a determination of wages due based on available evidence. For those employers, section 177.30 separately carries fines of up to $1,000 for each failure to maintain required records and up to $5,000 for each repeated failure.
If Your Employer Will Not Provide One
Ask in writing, and keep the request. A written request establishes the date and creates a record of the refusal if one follows.
Section 181.032 is one of the sections listed in Minn. Stat. § 181.171, subd. 1, so a violation can go straight to district court. An employer found liable owes whatever damages the violated section provides, plus compensatory damages and other appropriate relief, and subdivision 3 leaves the court no discretion on the employee’s costs, disbursements, witness fees and attorney fees.
Minn. Stat. § 181.03, subd. 6 independently protects you for asserting rights under these sections — even just telling your employer a complaint is coming — backed by a civil penalty of $700 to $3,000 for each violation.
Keep Them
Earnings statements are the cheapest evidence in any wage case and the easiest to lose access to, particularly where they live in a payroll portal you stop being able to reach the day your employment ends.
Download or photograph them while you still have access, and keep them somewhere that is not your work account. Keep as many years as you can reach, ideally at least three: electronic statements must remain available for three years, and some wage claims can reach three years.
Our page on recovering unpaid wages in Minneapolis explains what a claim involves once you have those records, and the firm’s Minnesota employment law section covers the other areas we handle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my employer give me only electronic pay stubs?
Yes, subject to conditions. The employer must give you access to an employer-owned computer during working hours to review and print statements, and must keep them available for three years. If you give at least 24 hours notice that you want written statements, the employer must provide them in writing on an ongoing basis.
Does my pay stub have to show my hours if I am salaried?
The total hours item applies unless you are exempt from chapter 177. A salaried employee who is not exempt is still entitled to see total hours worked. Being paid a salary does not by itself establish an exemption, which depends on both a salary basis and the applicable duties tests.
How long do I have to access old statements?
An employer providing statements electronically must make them available for review or printing for three years. That is an obligation on the employer rather than a guarantee that access will survive the end of your employment, which is why it is worth saving copies while you can.
My pay stub is wrong. What should I do?
Raise it in writing and keep the response, since an employer that corrects the error has resolved it and one that does not has now been put on notice. If the underlying problem is unpaid wages rather than a typographical error, the earnings statement itself is evidence of what the employer recorded.
Does the pay stub have to show sick and safe time?
Employees covered by the Minneapolis wage theft ordinance are entitled to see accrued sick and safe time available on the earnings statement each pay period, which is a city requirement in addition to the state list. Statewide earned sick and safe time carries its own notice requirements outside § 181.032.
This article explains Minnesota law in general terms and is not legal advice. Statutory requirements change and city ordinances may add to them. For advice about your situation, speak with a licensed attorney.
