How to File a Wage Claim in Minnesota
Minnesota wage claims start with a phone call to Labor Standards, not a form: 651-284-5075 or dli.laborstandards@state.mn.us. An investigator reaches out within two business days. The claim itself turns on timing — terminated workers are paid within 24 hours of a written demand in most cases, and workers who quit are paid by the next payday.
The claim, step by step
- Contact Labor Standards. Call 651-284-5075 or email dli.laborstandards@state.mn.us. The wage-claim page states intake is by phone, and an investigator reaches out within two business days.
- Provide the record. The employer's name, address, phone, and email; the owner's name if known; pay rates, hours worked, deductions taken, and pay dates; the last workday; and the date a demand for payment was made. The demand date matters because the terminated-worker clock runs from it.
- Let the investigator work. Labor Standards investigates the claim and enforces the wage-payment laws. The court route is preserved alongside the agency route — the statutes cited on the claim page include Minn. Stat. 177.27 subd. 8, 181.171, and 181.101 — so a worker is not forced to choose the agency over the court at the filing stage.
The timing rules that decide most claims
| Situation | Pay deadline |
|---|---|
| Terminated, written demand made | In most cases within 24 hours of the demand |
| Terminated, no demand | Regularly scheduled payday; in some circumstances 24 hours even without a demand |
| Quit or resigned | No later than the next regularly scheduled payday; second payday if the next payday is less than 5 days after the last day; maximum 20 days after the last day |
| Current employees | At least once every 31 days |
Deductions follow their own rule: unlawful deductions generally require the employee's voluntary written authorization, and changes to pay rates or paydays require advance written notice. A deduction taken without authorization, or a rate cut without notice, is part of the same complaint, not a separate filing.
What the claim covers
Unpaid wages, unpaid overtime, unlawful deductions, and final-pay violations under Minnesota's wage-payment laws. The Department's Labor Standards pages cover the full set of workplace topics — wage theft, final pay, deductions, pay statements, and record-keeping — and the claim intake takes the facts across all of them at once. Bring the whole record to the first call rather than filing twice.
For other states, see the Wage Claim Filing by State directory. For Minnesota final-pay timing in full, see Final Paycheck Deadline in Minnesota.
Source
Sources: Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, Labor Standards and Wage Claim pages (phone intake, two-business-day investigator contact, 24-hour demand rule, quit and resign timing, 31-day rule, deduction authorization and advance-notice rules, court-route statutes), read 2026-11-01. Facts verified 2026-11-01. Open flags: the city-ordinance routing (Minneapolis and St. Paul ordinances handled by the cities, not DLI) was stated in secondary summaries of DLI guidance and is not carried here because the DLI pages opened do not state it; no filing deadline for the agency complaint itself is stated on the pages opened, and none is asserted — the timing rules above are pay deadlines, not filing deadlines.
This page explains how the process works and what the official rules say. It is general information, not legal advice. For a dispute about your specific situation, talk to your state labor agency or a lawyer.
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