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.
Minnesota allows no tip credit, treats gratuities as the sole property of the employee who receives them, and requires that tips paid by card reach the employee in full. Those three rules are more protective than federal law on these points. What follows is what each one actually permits and prohibits.
Saint Paul sets three minimum wage rates based on how many people your employer employs. Count 101 or more and the City Rate applies. Count 6 to 100 and the small employer rate applies. Count 5 or fewer and the micro rate applies.
Saint Paul’s minimum wage depends on the size of your employer, and during the current phase-in the rates change on two different dates a year rather than one.
Minneapolis has one general rate regardless of employer size or employee age, subject to a narrow exception for employees under 20 in city-approved training and apprenticeship programs. What decides whether you are owed it is where you physically perform the work.
Minnesota’s general minimum wage under Chapter 177 is $11.41 an hour in 2026 and rises to $11.87 on January 1, 2027. That is the general floor rather than the whole picture. If you work in Minneapolis or Saint Paul, a higher city rate applies to the hours you work inside those city limits. And separate industry-specific wage standards can require more again, which from September 10, 2026 they do for nursing home workers across the state.
