Mandatory Overtime Labor Laws for Minnesota Businesses

Minnesota will make our look at overtime law a little more exciting than those states that just defer to the federal governments laws on labor and overtime. That’s because Minnesota has its own regulations when it comes to overtime.

The biggest difference between Minnesota and the federal rules is the length of a work week. In the state of Minnesota, the duration is 48 hours, as compared to the standard and more familiar 40 hours.

Of course, not all businesses have to abide by the Minnesota law. As we’ve seen in other states, there is a split regulation between the state laws and the federal laws. Just because Minnesota has its own laws doesn’t mean that the federal laws just disappear. The federal laws have to deal with interstate companies and companies that pull in more than $500,000 per year in revenue.

Minnesota law, though, says that when a company falls under both federal and state laws—such as would a very large multinational company—then the employer must follow the overtime laws that set the higher standard.

But interesting enough, in many cases that makes Minnesota the higher standard. For instance, the new federal laws, put into effect in August 2004, that make changes to exemptions for white-collar workers such as professionals, computer workers, administrators, and sales people are not the higher standard, according to Minnesota law.

That means that in certain cases, these big companies wouldn’t have to pay overtime to certain employers according to federal law. But, and this is a big but, in state law, they would be required to pay that time and a half of overtime pay.

Still, Minnesota also has its own list of exclusions, such as professionals and other white-collar workers who make a certain amount of money per year, retail and service people who make commission, and people who work for commercial auto dealers on a commission basis.

Bookmark the permalink