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Patricia Tsipras Peter Nakonechni
January 17, 2024
My Salary, My Business: Minnesota Bans Employer Inquiries into Applicants’ Pay History
Beginning January 1, 2024, Minnesota employers can no longer inquire about or consider a job applicant’s pay history during the hiring process. In enacting this law, Minnesota joins 28 states and localities that currently impose a similar salary history ban. The law applies to all job applicants, including current employees seeking an internal promotion or transfer and full and part-time employees.
Historically, women, people of color, and indigenous people have persistently been paid less than white men. The intent of this law is to bring Minnesota one step closer to narrowing this gender and racial pay gap by encouraging employers to rely on an applicant’s skills, education, certifications, licenses, and other qualifications, as well as the job market, to set pay.
Limited exceptions to the law exist:
This law applies to all public, private, and non-profit employers in Minnesota. To ensure compliance with the law, employers should plan for what information (other than past and current pay) they will use to determine an applicant’s pay and they should communicate this change to all employees, including leadership, Human Resources personnel, and supervisors. Employers also should consider providing additional training for anyone responsible for hiring.
The Minnesota Department of Human Rights suggests that employers consider using a compensation form for all candidates to demonstrate consistency when making decisions concerning salary and wages. This form can include, among other things, the composition of the applicant pool, the number of candidates who meet qualifications, and the number candidates interviewed; information about the candidates, such as years of relevant experience, education, special training, certifications, and other qualifications; labor market conditions; and salary/wage recommendations.
Earned Sick and Safe Leave Offered Statewide in Minnesota
Effective January 1, 2024, Minnesota’s earned sick and safe time (ESST) law will require employers statewide to provide paid leave to eligible employees (not independent contractors) who work in the state.
An employee is eligible for sick and safe time if they work at least 80 hours in a year for an employer in Minnesota.
An eligible employee will earn one hour of sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked and can earn a maximum of 48 hours each year, unless an employer agrees to a higher amount. Employers must pay sick and safe time at the same hourly rate an employee earns while they are working.
Employees can use ESST for reasons such as: (1) the employee’s mental or physical illness, treatment, or preventive care; (2) a family member’s mental or physical illness, treatment, or preventive care; (3) absence due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking of the employee or a family member; (4) closure of the employee’s workplace due to weather or public emergency or closure of a family member’s school or care facility due to weather or public emergency; and (5) when determined by a health authority or health care professional that the employee or a family member is at risk of infecting others with a communicable disease.
“Family members” include an employee’s (1) child, including foster child, adult child, legal ward, child for whom the employee is legal guardian, or child to whom the employee stands or stood in loco parentis (in place of a parent); (2) spouse or registered domestic partner; (3) sibling, stepsibling, or foster sibling; (4) biological, adoptive, or foster parent, stepparent, or a person who stood in loco parentis (in place of a parent) when the employee was a minor child; (5) grandchild, foster grandchild, or step-grandchild; (6) grandparent or step-grandparent; (7) a child of a sibling of the employee; (8) a sibling of the parents of the employee; (9) a child-in-law or sibling-in-law; (10) any of the family members listed in 1 through 9 of an employee’s spouse or registered domestic partner; (11) any other individual related by blood or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship; and (12) up to one individual annually designated by the employee.
Employers, in addition to providing one hour of sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked, you are required to:
*Special thanks to Ava Petrellese, our Paralegal, for her contributions to this article.
The authors of this article, Patricia Tsipras and Peter Nakonechni, are members of the Bars of Pennsylvania and New Jersey respectively. This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Minnesota or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
