Minnesota Employment Law: what to handle first around termination memo, schedule change records, and timing

On July 1, 2023, Minnesota joined California, North Dakota, and Oklahoma as one of the only states in the United States to impose a complete ban on employee non-compete agreements. Minnesota House File 3456 (2023) added Minnesota Statutes § 181.988, providing that any covenant not to compete — defined as an agreement between an employer and an employee that restricts the employee from working for another employer or starting a business in the same field after the employment relationship ends — is void and unenforceable in Minnesota, regardless of the amount of consideration, the length of the employment, or the scope of the restriction. Unlike Colorado's 2022 reform (which allows non-competes for high-wage employees above a salary threshold with criminal penalties for overly broad agreements) or Wisconsin's approach (which voids only overly broad non-competes while enforcing narrow ones), Minnesota's ban is categorical: no post-employment restriction on competition is enforceable as a condition of employment for any Minnesota employee at any wage level. Minnesota employers who include non-compete provisions in employment agreements after July 1, 2023 face unenforceable provisions — and potentially claims of unlawful interference with employees' ability to seek competing employment.

Minnesota's labor law environment reflects the state's strong union tradition and stands in sharp contrast to Wisconsin's post-Act 10 landscape just across the border. Minnesota operates under the Public Employment Labor Relations Act (PELRA, Minn. Stat. § 179A.01 et seq.), which provides robust collective bargaining rights to Minnesota state and local government employees — teachers, hospital workers, transit employees, and state agency workers have meaningful bargaining over wages, benefits, hours, and working conditions in Minnesota. This contrasts directly with Wisconsin's Act 10 (2011), which restricted most Wisconsin public employees to wage-only bargaining with annual recertification requirements. The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area is home to strong private sector unions in healthcare (SEIU Healthcare MN, Minnesota Nurses Association), transportation (Teamsters), manufacturing (United Steelworkers at facilities in the Twin Cities and Iron Range), and education (Education Minnesota, the state's teachers' union). Minnesota is not a right-to-work state — private sector employees can be required to pay union dues or fair share fees as a condition of employment under collective bargaining agreements.