Minnesota law does not automatically require every employer to cash out unused paid time off at separation. Whether yours is owed depends primarily on your employer’s governing policy or agreement and whether the benefit became earned under those terms.
Minnesota has several different late-payment penalties, and which one applies depends on which statute the employer violated. There is no single penalty for paying an employee late.
Your final wages are due no later than the first regularly scheduled payday after your last day of employment. Minn. Stat. § 181.14, subd. 1 sets that rule, subject to a collective bargaining agreement providing otherwise, and adds one narrow extension where that payday falls very close to your final day.
The 24 hours is not the deadline for paying you. Under Minn. Stat. § 181.13, wages and commissions actually earned and unpaid at the time you are discharged are immediately due and payable upon your demand, and the 24-hour period that follows the demand decides when your employer falls into default and a daily penalty begins to run.
For most Minnesota employees, when final pay is due depends on how the employment ended. If you were discharged, earned wages are immediately due and payable upon your written demand. If you quit or resigned, they are due no later than the first regularly scheduled payday after your last day, subject to the statutory exceptions described below.
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act covers hospitals and qualifying institutions primarily engaged in providing medical or nursing care to residents without the ordinary $500,000 revenue threshold, subject to the enterprise coverage requirements. For covered, nonexempt employees, federal overtime is generally due after 40 hours. Federal and Minnesota law also contain a 14-day, 8-and-80 alternative for qualifying health care settings, and it comes with specific conditions.
