Executive exemption
Minnesota minimum wage law exempts bona fide executive employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. MN Statute 177.23(7)(6) To qualify as an exempt executive employee, an employee must:
- be paid a salary of at least $155 per week;
- manage and supervise a department of at least two other full-time people (full-time is defined as at least 35 hours per week);
- have authority to hire or fire or suggest changes to an employee’s status;
- regularly exercise discretionary powers, and;
- either:
- devote no more than 20 percent (40 percent if working in a retail or service establishment) to nonexempt work;
- own 20 percent or more of the business; or
- have sole charge of an independent or branch establishment.
An employee may also qualify for the executive employee exemption if he or she:
- is paid a salary of at least $250 per week;
- manages the enterprise or a recognized department or subdivision thereof; and
- customarily directs the work of two or more other employees.
Administrative exemption
Minnesota minimum wage law exempts bona fide administrative employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. MN Statute 177.23(7)(6) To qualify as an exempt administrative employee, an employee must:
- be paid a salary or fee of at least $155 per week;
- either:
- perform office or nonmanual work directly related to business operations or management policies, or
- administer an educational system or subdivision thereof in work relating to academic instruction;
- regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment and makes important decisions;
- either:
- directly assist the business owner or a bona fide executive or administrative employee;
- perform supervised work only along lines requiring special training or experience; or
- execute special assignments;
- devote no more than 20 percent (40 percent if working in a retail or service establishment) to nonexempt work;
An employee may also qualify for the administrative employee exemption if he or she:
- be paid a salary or fee of at least $250 per week;
- either:
- perform office or nonmanual work directly related to business operations or management policies, or
- administer an educational system or subdivision thereof in work relating to academic instruction;
- regularly exercises discretion or independent judgment.
Professional exemption
Minnesota minimum wage law exempts bona fide professional employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. MN Statute 177.23(7)(6) To qualify as an exempt professional employee, an employee must:
- be paid a salary or fee of at least $170 per week;
- either:
- perform work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of learning customarily acquired by prolonged specialized intellectual study, not a general academic education, an apprenticeship, or training in routine mental or physical processes;
- perform original work dependent on their own creativeness in a recognized field of artistic endeavor; or
- be a certified teacher working as such or recognized as such in a school system where they work;
- consistently exercise judgment and discretion;
- perform predominantly intellectual work so varied that the output cannot be standardized by time necessary for accomplishment; and
- devote less than 20 percent of their hours worked to activities that are not essential to their professional work.
An employee may also qualify for the professional employee exemption if he or she:
- be paid a salary or fee of at least $250 per week;
- either:
- performs work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning;
- performs work as a teacher in the activity of imparting knowledge; or
- performs work requiring invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized field of artistic endeavor;
- consistently exercises discretion and judgment.
Outside salesman exemption
Minnesota minimum wage laws exempt outside salesmen from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. MN Statute 177.23(7)(6) To qualify as an outside salesman, an employee must:
- make sales of, or obtain orders or contracts for, materials, services, or the use of facilities for which payment will be made;
- make no more than 20 percent of all sales from the employer’s place of business;
- perform non-outside sales work no more than 20 percent of the time worked by non-outside sales employees.
Exempt work for outside salesmen includes incidental deliveries, collections, and other nonsales or nonsolicitation work directly related to sales.
Computer employee exemption
Minnesota law does not exempt computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, or other similarly skilled workers from its minimum wage or overtime requirements.
Other minimum wage and overtime exemptions
Minnesota also exempts the following individuals from its minimum wage and overtime requirements:
- two or fewer specified individuals employed at any given time in agriculture on a farming unit or operation who are paid a salary;
- individuals employed in agriculture on a farming unit or operation who are paid a salary greater than the individuals would be paid if they worked 48 hours at the state minimum wage plus 17 hours at 1-1/2 times the state minimum wage per week;
- individuals under 18 who are employed in agriculture on a farm to perform services other than corn detasseling or hand field work when one or both of the minor hand field worker’s parents or physical custodians are also hand field workers;
- an individual under 18 who is employed as a corn detasseler (exempt only from minimum wage requirements, not overtime requirements);
- staff members employed on a seasonal basis by an organization for work in an organized resident or day camp operating under a permit issued under Minnesota Statute 144.72;
- individuals who render service gratuitously for a nonprofit organization;
- individuals who serve as elected officials for a political subdivision or who serve on any governmental board, commission, committee or other similar body, or who render service gratuitously for a political subdivision;
- individuals employed by a political subdivision to provide police or fire protection services or employed by an entity whose principal purpose is to provide police or fire protection services to a political subdivision;
- individuals employed by a political subdivision who is ineligible for membership in the Public Employees Retirement Association under section Minnesota Statute 353.01, subdivision 2b, clause (1), (2), (4), or (9);
- drivers employed by an employer engaged in the business of operating taxicabs;
- individuals engaged in babysitting as sole practitioners;
- individuals under 18 working less than 20 hours per workweek for a municipality as part of a recreational program;
- individuals employed by the state as a natural resource manager 1, 2, or 3 (conservation officer);
- individuals in a position for which the United States Department of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service under United States Code, title 49, section 31502;
- individuals employed as a seafarer. The term “seafarer” means a master of a vessel or any person subject to the authority, direction, and control of the master who is exempt from federal overtime standards under United States Code, title 29, section 213(b)(6), including but not limited to pilots, sailors, engineers, radio operators, firefighters, security guards, pursers, surgeons, cooks, and stewards;
- individuals employed by a county in a single-family residence owned by a county home school as authorized under section 260B.060 if the residence is an extension facility of that county home school, and if the individuals as part of the employment duties reside at the residence for the purpose of supervising children as defined by Minnesota Statute 260C.007, subdivision 4; or
- nuns, monks, priests, lay brothers, lay sisters, ministers, deacons, and other members of religious orders who serve pursuant to their religious obligations in schools, hospitals, and other nonprofit institutions operated by the church or religious order.
Overtime only exemptions
Minnesota exempts the following employees from its overtime requirements only. An employer must comply with any minimum wage requirements related to these employees.
- individuals employed on a seasonal basis in a carnival, circus, fair, or ski facility (MN Statute 177.23(7)(13));
- any salesperson, parts person, or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles, trailers, trucks, or farm implements and paid on a commission or incentive basis, if employed by a nonmanufacturing establishment primarily engaged in selling the vehicles to ultimate purchasers.
- employees employed in the construction of on-farm silos or the installation of appurtenant equipment on a unit or piece rate basis, if the regular rate of pay received per hour of work exceeds the standard minimum wage;
- employees of air carriers subject to the provisions of title II of the Railway Labor Act, when the hours worked by an employee in excess of 48 in a workweek are not required by the carrier, but are arranged through a voluntary agreement among employees to trade scheduled work hours.
