The 2024 Minnesota legislative session did not produce nearly as many significant pieces of employment legislation as the 2023 session. Still, this legislature passed multiple new employment laws this year and amended several existing ones.

Below is a summary of the most critical developments that apply to Minnesota employers and what they mean for employer practices and operations.

Salary Ranges Required in Job Postings

Effective January 1, 2025, employers with 30 or more employees in Minnesota must disclose in each posting for each job opening the starting salary range (or a fixed pay rate). They also must disclose a general description of the benefits and other compensation, including, but not limited to, any health or retirement benefits that will be offered to a hired applicant.

These requirements apply to all solicitations intended to recruit job applicants for a specific available position (in electronic or hard copy format), including recruitment performed directly by an employer or indirectly through a third party. The law provides that “salary range” means the minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly range of compensation, based on the employer’s good faith estimate at the time of the posting.

Minnesota employers should review their recruiting and hiring practices and procedures to ensure compliance with this new law.

Modifications to Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time Law

Last year, the Minnesota legislature passed a statewide paid sick and safe leave entitlement for employees. It was effective January 1, 2024. Now the legislature has passed amendments that change the law in the following key ways:

• Employees are now allowed to use their paid sick and safe leave for making funeral arrangements or to address financial or legal matters after the death of a family member.
• Employers are no longer required to provide earned sick and safe leave totals on pay statements and may choose a reasonable system to provide the information to employees. These records must be kept for three years.
• Employers who fail to provide, or allow the use of, earned sick and safe time under the law will be liable to affected employees for an amount of money equal to the time that they were not provided or not allowed to use, plus an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.
• Employers who fail to keep records sufficient to determine whether employees have been provided the legally required sick and safe time are liable to the affected employee for an amount equal to 48 hours of earned sick and safe time for each year the earned sick and safe time was not provided, plus an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.
• The law was also amended to provide a detailed definition of “base rate,” which is now the rate at which employees must be paid their earned sick and safe time.

Employers should review and update their sick and safe leave policies and recordkeeping practices accordingly to ensure compliance.

Modifications to Existing Pregnancy Accommodations and Parental Leave Obligations

As we addressed in detail last year, the Minnesota legislature passed amendments in 2023 to Minnesota’s nursing mothers and pregnancy accommodations statute for the purpose of broadening protections for employees.

The law was amended again this year. Specifically, the law now provides that during any leave provided as an accommodation for a pregnant employee’s disability, employers must maintain coverage under any group insurance policy, group subscriber contract or health care plan for the employee and any dependents. The employee, however, must continue to pay any employee share of the benefits’ cost.

The amendments also clarify that the length of any pregnancy or parenting leave provided for by the law must not be reduced by any period of paid or unpaid leave taken for prenatal care medical appointments.

Employers should review their leave and accommodation practices and policies to ensure compliance.

Ban on Noncompetes in Service Agreements

Last year, the Minnesota legislature banned noncompetes in employment agreements. This year, it has done the same with respect to service contracts. Specifically, no service provider (which includes any partnership, association, corporation, business, trust or group of persons acting directly or indirectly as an employer or manager for work contracted or requested by a customer) may restrict, restrain or prohibit in any way a customer from directly or indirectly soliciting or hiring an employee of a service provider. The new law applies to contracts and agreements entered into on or after July 1, 2024.

Workers providing professional business consulting for computer software development and related services who are seeking employment through a service provider with the knowledge and intention of being considered for a permanent position of employment with the customer at a later date are exempted from this law.

Employee Misclassification Prohibition

The Minnesota legislature updated an existing law to provide for increased obligations and penalties for employers who misclassify their workers. The detailed amendments generally provide that it is unlawful to fail to classify, represent or treat an individual who is an employee as an employee in accordance with the requirements of applicable law. It is also unlawful to fail to report or disclose the identity of individuals who are employees to any person to agency. Employers may also not require or request employees to enter into an agreement that classifies them as an individual contractor.

The law includes compensatory damages and penalties for each violation. Significantly, the law also provides for individual liability for knowing or repeated violations by owners, partners, principals, members, officers or agents. The law also provides for revised obligations and consequences for any person providing or performing building construction or improvement services. Employers should review their contractor and employee classification standards and procedures to ensure compliance.

Modifications to the Minnesota Human Rights Act

The Minnesota legislature passed amendments to its existing human rights law, the Minnesota Human Rights Act (“MHRA”), which impact the law in the following key ways:

• Under the existing law, employees with a “disability” are protected from discrimination and are entitled to reasonable accommodations. The definition of “disability” in the MHRA has now been updated to add impairments that are episodic or in remission and would materially limit a major life activity when active.
• The term “discriminate” under the MHRA has now been updated to clarify that it includes “harassment” in general, not just sexual harassment.
• Employees are currently protected from discrimination based on their “familial status” under the existing law. The definition of “familial status” has now been updated to include minors “having legal status or custody” with the minor’s parents or guardians, and to include “residing with and caring for one or more individuals who lack the ability to meet essential requirements for physical health, safety or self-care because the individual or individuals are unable to receive and evaluate information or make or communicate decisions.”
• An exemption previously afforded to religious or fraternal organizations was also updated to clarify that fraternal corporations, associations or societies are exempt from the discrimination provision of the MHRA with respect to qualifications based on religion when religion is a bona fide occupational qualification of the employee.
• The penalties, damages, and other remedies provisions of the MHRA were broadened to include an additional civil penalty to be awarded by the court based on several factors that depend on the seriousness of the violation and the harm occurred. Courts may also order the hiring, reinstatement or upgrading of an employee who has suffered discrimination, in addition to other remedies.

Employers should review their equal employment opportunity, discrimination and harassment policies and practices to ensure compliance.

The legislature also increased minimum wage rates effective January 1, 2025, passed amendments to the Minnesota Paid Leave Law regarding issues including premium rates and wage replacement provisions, and modified the Minnesota Drug and Alcohol Testing in the Workplace Act to allow employers to test an employee or job applicant for drugs, cannabis or alcohol using “oral fluid testing.”

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