Employers Beware: Minnesota's New Wage Theft Law

August 12, 2019  |  Bradley Kletscher

Minnesota passed a new wage theft law that imposes requirements on employers to provide offer letters. The new law requires employers to give a detailed notice to new employees when they start employment, and must include the following:

1. Employee’s Employment status
2. Must indicate whether employee is full or part time.
3. Must indicate exempt status under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
4. Must list the basis for any exemptions (e.g. administrative, executive, computer-related, other)
5. Pay period information, including how frequently the employee will be paid.
6. Date of first paycheck.
7. How pay is calculated (salary, hourly, commission etc.).
8. List of any allowances that may be paid (e.g. housing, meals, etc.).
9. Description of any paid time off, including vacation, sick, personal time off and how an employee accrues time off and how to use it.
10. List of deductions, including benefit, tax and any other lawful deductions.
11. Employer’s legal and operating names.
12. Employer’s address (mailing and/or principal place of business) and telephone number.
13. If applicable, an offer to translate this information into another language.

The new notice required by the law requires an updated offer letter for most employers.
If a candidate negotiates changes to wages or benefits, the offer letter should be amended to include those changes. Upon finalizing the offer letter, the employee must sign the offer letter to acknowledge that they have received it. A copy of the offer letter and acknowledgement must be retained in the employer’s records and be available to the Department of Labor & Industry within 72 hours of any demand from the agency.
For questions on the new wage theft law, please contact your employment lawyers at Barna, Guzy & Steffen, Ltd.