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: personnel file; employment file.
“Personnel record,” to the extent maintained by an employer, means: any application for employment; wage or salary history; notices of commendation, warning, discipline, or termination; authorization for a deduction or withholding of pay; fringe benefit information; leave records; and employment history with the employer, including salary and compensation history, job titles, dates of promotions, transfers, and other changes, attendance records, performance evaluations, and retirement record.
Minn. Stat. § 181.960, subd. 4. Two limits are built in. “[T]o the extent maintained by an employer” means the statute reaches what exists, not what should exist — it creates no duty to have kept a document. And the subdivision then excludes ten categories, including written references, a supervisor’s notes kept in the author’s sole possession, medical reports, and open investigation records.
Where this comes up
- Your Minnesota Employer Has Seven Working Days to Hand You Your Personnel File, Free
- The Exit Meeting: Every Document Handed Across the Table Runs on Its Own Statute and Its Own Clock
- A Minnesota employer may say far more in a reference than dates of employment — including documented theft, harassment, or violence — and § 181.967 is a shield for the employer, not a gag rule
Sources checked September 8, 2026. Citations independently verified against the primary source September 8, 2026.