What do you need to know to hire in Minnesota?
A $11.41 state wage floor, a graduated income tax, and Minnesota Paid Leave now running at 0.88% of wages. Each Minnesota guide below takes one layer of state rule.
· Minnesota, United States guide
Illustration · Saint Paul, Minnesota
Minnesota adds real weight on top of the federal floor. A $11.41 state minimum, a graduated income tax you withhold at the state level, and Minnesota Paid Leave at 0.88% of wages are the lines that move the budget.
The federal stack still sets the baseline: FLSA, FICA, FUTA and FMLA apply everywhere. Everything Minnesota layers on top is what these guides cover.
Most employers plan for the wage and the income-tax withholding and then miss the Paid Leave premium and the Earned Sick and Safe Time accrual. This page is the map; each guide is the detail.
What do you need to know to hire in Minnesota?
Minnesota runs the federal employment floor and then adds a state minimum wage, a graduated income tax, a statewide paid-leave programme, and earned sick time on top. The state minimum is $11.41 an hour, above the federal $7.25 floor, and overtime is time and a half after the 40-hour week.
Where Minnesota gets specific is leave. Minnesota Paid Leave pays benefits from 2026, Earned Sick and Safe Time accrues for every worker, and final pay on a discharge is due fast. Each guide below takes one of those layers.
Sienna runs payroll for a 12-person team and just approved her first Minnesota hire. The federal stack she already knows still applies: Social Security and Medicare each side, FUTA, and FMLA once the company passes 50 employees. Minnesota then layers a state income tax, the Paid Leave premium, Earned Sick and Safe Time, and its own final-pay rule on top.
Start from the United States overview for the federal baseline. This page is the Minnesota-specific layer, and the guides below break it into the questions an employer actually asks before a first hire.
What does an employer actually pay in Minnesota?
The Minnesota-specific cost is unemployment insurance, the Paid Leave premium, and the state income tax you withhold, all on top of the federal pass-through. Minnesota Paid Leave runs at 0.88% of wages, split evenly, with an employer share of 0.44%.
Paid Leave premiums apply up to a $185,000 wage base, and a small employer with 30 or fewer staff pays a reduced 0.66%. Earned Sick and Safe Time accrues at one hour per 30 hours worked.
Minimum wage: $11.41 an hour at the state level, above the federal $7.25. State income tax: a graduated tax, withheld at the state level, with the bracket table in the tax guide. Overtime: time and a half after 40 hours a week, with a 30-minute meal break on a shift of 6 hours or more.
Unemployment insurance: employer-paid on a state wage base, with new-employer and experience rates set each year, detailed in the tax and unemployment guide. Paid Leave: 0.88% of wages up to $185,000, employer share 0.44%. Earned Sick and Safe Time: one hour per 30 hours worked. Final pay: earned wages due within 1 day of a written demand after a discharge.
Sources: Minnesota DLI minimum wage, Minnesota Paid Leave and US DOL state minimum wage.
The figures above are the headline. The detail, from the income-tax brackets and withholding setup to the unemployment wage base, the Paid Leave filing cadence, and the exempt-salary threshold, sits in the Minnesota tax and unemployment guide and the wage and overtime guide.
The Minnesota guides, one layer at a time
Four Minnesota guides are live, one per layer of state rule. Each answers the questions an employer asks before the first hire, with the statutory numbers pulled from the same Minnesota source set.
State income tax & unemployment insurance
How the graduated income tax withholds, the unemployment wage base, new-employer and experience rates, and the quarterly filing rhythm.
Wage, overtime & meal break law
The $11.41 state floor, the 40-hour overtime week, and the 30-minute meal break after 6 hours.
Paid family & sick leave
Minnesota Paid Leave at 0.88% of wages, up to 20 weeks combined, plus Earned Sick and Safe Time accrual.
Termination & at-will exceptions
At-will with public-policy limits, the 1-day final-pay clock on a demand, and the federal WARN math on a mass layoff.
The Minnesota worker-classification guide, the state's test for employee versus contractor, is the next one we're building. Need it sooner? Tell us and we'll move it up the queue.
How does Minnesota compare to its neighbours?
Minnesota carries more state-level employer obligation than its neighbours, with a paid-leave premium and earned sick time most of the region doesn't run. The federal floor is identical; the state layer is not.
Cross a state line and the math changes. Iowa runs a lower flat income tax and no statewide paid-leave premium. Wisconsin shares the at-will baseline but has no Paid Leave programme or earned sick time mandate. North Dakota sets a far lower income tax than Minnesota's graduated rates.
If you're hiring across the region, read each state's guides before you set payroll. The structure is the same everywhere; the income tax, the leave premium, and the termination rules are not.
How does Teamed hire in Minnesota for you?
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Minnesota for from $599 per employee per month, with zero FX mark-up in any currency. Payroll, the unemployment registration, the Paid Leave premium, the 1-day final-pay clock, and the federal stack run on one platform.
There's no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Real HR and legal experts handle your Minnesota hires, from the first offer letter to a contested termination. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue, who knows the Paid Leave premium split and the 1-day final-pay rule on a written demand. There's no setup fee and no exit fee, the platform tracks every federal and state trigger in real time, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll, and entity setup live on one platform. A Minnesota contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate from EOR to your own US entity without re-onboarding. Run the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips. EOR is the right model for a first Minnesota hire, until it isn't.
Minnesota reads as a high-obligation state: a graduated income tax, a paid-leave premium, and earned sick time on top of the federal floor. The catch is the leave stack, the premium starts before the first claim does. These guides exist so the first Minnesota hire never becomes the first Minnesota filing.
Minnesota is not the simple state to hire in. A graduated income tax, a state minimum above the federal floor, and Paid Leave at 0.88% of wages.
The premium starts before anyone takes a day of leave, and Earned Sick and Safe Time accrues from the first hour worked.
Read the right guide before the first hire, not after the first filing.
