Articles Discussing Minnesota Wage & Hour Claims.

The Minnesota Supreme Court, the state’s highest appellate court, has upheld a minimum wage ordinance enacted by the City of Minneapolis in 2017, providing for a higher minimum wage than that provided by state law. Graco, Inc. v. City of Minneapolis, 2020 Minn. App. LEXIS 12 (Minn. Jan. 20, 2020).

All employers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, must pay their employees at least $15.00 an hour by July 1, 2024, under a minimum wage ordinance approved by the Minneapolis City Council on June 30, 2017. The ordinance applies to anyone who works in Minneapolis for any amount of time.

In recent years, I have noticed a movement away from the traditional categories of “vacation” and “sick” leave and holidays to hybrids like PTO, holiday hours, and personal days. While those new categories provide greater flexibility to employees and apparent ease as to record-keeping, they also complicate the question for employers about whether those accrued leave categories have to be paid out when an employee leaves the job. Some states make it easy, like Minnesota. Back in 2007, the Minnesota Supreme Court held in Lee v. Fresenius Medical Care, Inc., that, under Minnesota law, whether benefits like accrued vacation or PTO are due is “wholly contractual.”

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has signed a law increasing the minimum wage in Minnesota to $9.50 an hour by 2016. The first of three increases will be effective August 1, 2014.

Employers who require restaurant employees to pay for cash register shortages, customer walkouts and unsigned credit card receipts from their gratuities violate Section 181.79 of Minnesota Statutes on “unlawful deductions,” the Minnesota Supreme Court has held. Karl, et al. v. Uptown Drink, LLC, et al., No. A12-0166 (Aug. 14, 2013).

Unlike the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, an exemption under the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act (MFLSA) for agricultural workers does not apply to workers who are paid on an hourly basis, according to the Minnesota Court of Appeals. In re Labor Law Violation of Daley Farm of Lewiston, No. 11-1900-19544-2 (Minn. Ct. App. July 9, 2012).