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Minnesota pay transparency law: the salary range and job posting rules

Since January 1, 2025, Minnesota employers with 30 or more employees at Minnesota sites must publish a starting salary range in every job posting, plus a general description of all benefits and other compensation. Minnesota is the state that wrote the ban on open-ended ranges directly into the statute, so "up to" and "and up" phrasing does not comply.

This page covers who counts toward the 30, what a compliant Minnesota posting has to contain, the fixed pay rate alternative, how the law is actually enforced, and how to build a posted range you can defend. Build one below in about a minute.

Last updated July 2026 / General information, not legal advice

Pay band builder Sample data
02 · Market
03 · Seniority
04 · Company stage
No. / At a glance / 01

Minnesota pay transparency, in one table

Obligation Who it covers What you must do Notes
Starting salary range 30 or more employees at Minnesota sites Publish the minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly range in every posting, internal or external. Good faith estimate at time of posting
No open-ended ranges Same employers The range needs a real floor and a real ceiling. "Up to" and "and up" phrasing is prohibited by statute. Written into the law, not a regulator's gloss
Fixed rate alternative Same employers If you do not plan to offer a range at all, list a single fixed pay rate instead. A range is not mandatory, a number is
Benefits and other compensation Same employers Add a general description of all benefits and other compensation, expressly including health and retirement benefits. Separate mandatory element

Source: Minn. Stat. section 181.173, enacted in 2024 and effective January 1, 2025, and guidance from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Summarized here for planning, not as legal advice.

No. / What it says / 02

The three details that catch employers out

01

The 30 are counted in Minnesota only

The statute defines an employer as a person or entity employing 30 or more people at one or more sites in Minnesota. That is the opposite of New Jersey, which counts headcount nationwide. A 500-person national company with 12 people in Minneapolis is under the threshold and not covered. A 40-person company entirely in St. Paul is covered. Multi-state employers get these two rules backwards constantly.

02

Open-ended ranges are banned by statute

Several states dislike open-ended ranges. Minnesota wrote the ban into the law itself: a salary range may not be open ended. That kills the two habits recruiters fall back on when they want negotiating room, "$95,000 and up" and "up to $140,000". Both need a real minimum and a real maximum. New Jersey has a similar rule sitting in proposed regulations that have not been adopted, which makes Minnesota the harder of the two today.

03

You can post one number instead of a range

An employer that does not plan to offer a range must list a fixed pay rate. This is a real option rather than a loophole, and it is the honest choice for roles paid off a rate card: hourly warehouse work, licensed trades, union-adjacent schedules. What you cannot do is skip the number entirely or hedge it into something open ended.

The definition of a posting is deliberately broad. It reaches any solicitation intended to recruit applicants for a specific available position, made directly or through a third party, electronically or in print. A LinkedIn post from a hiring manager, a staffing agency listing and a printed flyer in a break room are all postings. If you use agencies, their template is your exposure, so send them the compliant wording rather than assuming they have it.

No. / Exposure / 03

How Minnesota actually enforces this

Minnesota's posting law is unusual for what it leaves out. Section 181.173 sets no penalty schedule of its own, names no dollar figure, and creates no cure period. Any page quoting you a specific per-violation fine for Minnesota is inventing it. Enforcement instead runs through the general machinery: the Department of Labor and Industry investigates and the Attorney General can act, using the enforcement provisions that apply across Chapters 177 and 181.

No private right of action for postings

Chapter 181 lists the specific sections an individual can take straight to district court. Section 181.173 is not on that list. Applicants cannot bring their own posting claim, which puts Minnesota alongside Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts rather than Washington, where private plaintiffs and fee awards made posting violations expensive fast.

The quiet risk is evidentiary, not penal

The practical danger in Minnesota is not the fine. It is that your published ranges become a record of what you said each role was worth. When a pay equity question surfaces later, two years of postings sitting next to your actual offers is the first document anyone pulls. Ranges built off a documented method survive that comparison. Ranges invented per requisition do not.

That second point is worth taking seriously before the first one tempts you to relax. A pay equity audit run under privilege is much easier when your posted ranges and your internal bands are the same structure, and much harder when they are two unrelated sets of numbers.

No. / Template / 04

What a compliant Minnesota posting looks like

The statute asks for three things in the ad: a starting salary range that is not open ended, or a fixed rate, and a general description of all benefits and other compensation. Here is the difference between wording that works and wording that does not.

Wording Complies? Why
$92,000 to $114,000 per year Yes Real minimum, real maximum, closed at both ends.
$28.50 per hour Yes Valid fixed pay rate for a role where no range will be offered.
$92,000 and up No Open ended at the top, expressly prohibited by the statute.
Up to $114,000 No Open ended at the bottom, same problem in the other direction.
Competitive, depends on experience No No number at all, which is the disclosure the law exists to force.
$92,000 to $114,000, no benefits line No Range is fine, but the general benefits description is a separate mandatory element.

The benefits sentence does not have to be personalized and it does not have to be long. One paragraph naming health coverage, retirement, paid time off and any bonus, commission or equity component covers it, and it can sit in your posting template permanently. This is the element employers forget most often, and the easiest one to never fail again.

No. / Method / 05

How to build a Minnesota posting you can defend

Minnesota uses a good faith estimate standard for the range, judged at the time you post. That makes the defensible answer a documented method rather than a per-requisition guess.

  1. Step 01

    Benchmark against Twin Cities percentiles

    Most Minnesota hiring competes in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metro, which runs above greater Minnesota for the same occupation. Pull P25, P50 and P75 for the occupation and the metro from public BLS wage data rather than using a national average that overpays in Duluth and underpays in Minneapolis.

  2. Step 02

    Post the starting range, not the whole band

    The statute asks for the starting salary range, meaning what you would pay someone entering the role. Your internal band can extend well above that for people who grow into the top of it. Publishing the starting slice keeps the posted number honest and keeps the range narrow enough to look deliberate.

  3. Step 03

    Close both ends of every range

    Add a validation step to your posting workflow that rejects any range missing a minimum or a maximum, and blocks the phrases "up to", "and up", "starting at" and "competitive". This is a five minute change to a template that removes the most common Minnesota failure permanently.

  4. Step 04

    Send agencies the same wording you use

    Third party postings count. Give every recruiter and staffing partner the exact range and benefits block for the role, in writing, and require that they publish it unaltered. A partner who trims the benefits paragraph for length has created your violation, not theirs.

Do it now

Wagelist turns a role, a market, a seniority level and a company stage into a P25/P50/P75 band and a closed, posting-ready starting range built on public U.S. BLS wage data, with the methodology attached. Use the builder at the top of this page, or read the full method behind salary bands.

See how posted ranges work
No. / Context / 06

How Minnesota compares to the other posting states

Minnesota has the highest employee threshold of any posting state, which exempts a lot of small employers, but it pairs that with the strictest rule on how a range may be written. If you hire across state lines, the strictest rule you touch sets the floor for your template.

State Employer threshold Headcount counted Open-ended ranges Employees can sue?
Minnesota 30 or more Minnesota sites only Banned by statute No
Maryland None, every employer Not applicable Range must be good faith No
New Jersey 10 or more Nationwide Ban is proposed, not adopted No
Massachusetts 25 or more In-state only Range must be good faith No
Washington 15 or more Global, if one WA employee Range must be good faith Yes, private plaintiffs

The practical answer for a multi-state employer is one national band per role and level with a documented geographic multiplier, published as a closed range with a benefits block every time. That single template satisfies Minnesota's wording rule, Maryland's no-threshold reach and Washington's plaintiff risk at once. The full breakdown lives in our guide to pay transparency laws by state, and the width question is covered in how wide a salary range should be.

No. / FAQ / 07

Minnesota pay transparency questions

Does Minnesota require salary ranges in job postings?

Yes. Since January 1, 2025, employers with 30 or more employees at Minnesota sites must disclose a starting salary range in every posting, plus a general description of all benefits and other compensation. If no range will be offered, the posting must carry a single fixed pay rate instead.

How many employees does the law apply to?

Thirty or more, counted at one or more sites in Minnesota. Employees elsewhere do not count, which is the reverse of New Jersey. A national company with 500 staff and 12 in Minnesota sits below the threshold; a 40-person company entirely in Minnesota does not.

Can a posting use an open-ended salary range?

No. The statute says a salary range may not be open ended, so "$95,000 and up" and "up to $140,000" both fail. Close both ends with a real minimum and a real maximum, or post one fixed rate. This is the most commonly broken part of the Minnesota rule.

Do Minnesota postings have to list benefits?

Yes, and it is a separate requirement from the range. Each posting needs a general description of all benefits and other compensation, expressly including any health or retirement benefits a hired applicant would get. A perfect range with no benefits line still does not comply.

What is the penalty for a violation?

The statute sets no penalty schedule of its own and names no dollar figure. Enforcement runs through the Department of Labor and Industry and the Attorney General under the general Chapter 177 and 181 provisions. Any source quoting a specific Minnesota per-violation fine is inventing it.

Does it apply to postings made by recruiters?

Yes. A posting is any solicitation intended to recruit applicants for a specific position, made directly or through a third party, electronically or in print. When an agency publishes on your behalf the obligation stays yours, so give them the exact range and benefits wording and require it be published unaltered.

No. / Related / 08

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