Nothing on this page is advice about your job, and no article can be. If you want your own facts looked at, a Minnesota employment attorney can do that — and several of the deadlines described on this site are short enough that waiting is itself a decision.
Also called: employee under the Whistleblower Act; Minn. Stat. § 181.931 employee.
“Employee” means a person who performs services for hire in Minnesota for an employer. Employee does not include an independent contractor.
Minn. Stat. § 181.931, subd. 2. Subdivision 1 limits this definition to sections 181.931 to 181.935, and the limit matters: definitions in Minnesota’s employment statutes are not interchangeable. The noncompete statute runs the other way on the same question — Minn. Stat. § 181.988, subd. 1(c), defines “employee” to mean “any individual who performs services for an employer, including independent contractors.” Whether a worker is genuinely an independent contractor is a separate question from what the paperwork calls them, and this page does not decide it for anyone.
Where this comes up
- Minnesota's Whistleblower Act Protects a Report of a Legal Violation — Not Every Complaint About a Boss
- Was My Firing Illegal? Minnesota's Honest Answer Is Usually No, and the Exceptions Are a Short, Specific List
- Signing a 1099 agreement does not make you a contractor in Minnesota — being asked to sign one is itself a violation
Sources checked September 8, 2026. Citations independently verified against the primary source September 8, 2026.