Topic
Discrimination and harassment
The Human Rights Act, harassment, accommodation, pregnancy, and the charge process at the Department of Human Rights and the EEOC.
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15 guides
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Still employed
The 2024 Amendment Untethered Harassment From Sex. It Did Not Touch 'Severe or Pervasive.'
Minnesota changed one sentence of the Human Rights Act on August 1, 2024: 'discriminate' now includes harassment, full stop, not only sexual harassment. The severe-or-pervasive standard is judicial, it survived Kenneh v. Homeward Bound, and Kenneh reset how it is applied.
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Minnesota's Accommodation Duty Turns on 15 Employees and a Job You Can Do — Not on Whether You Are "On Disability"
Minn. Stat. § 363A.08, subd. 6, reaches an employer at 15 employees, and Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 12, defines "disability" by what an impairment does to a major life activity, not by any benefits award. A 2021 amendment then wrote the interactive process into subdivision 6(a) — two years after the Minnesota Supreme Court held the Act did not require one.
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Minnesota's Age Protection Starts at 18, Not at 40 — and a Second Statute Puts Mandatory Retirement at 70
Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 2, protects anyone over the age of majority, where the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects only those 40 and older and only at employers with twenty employees. Minnesota then adds Minn. Stat. § 181.81, a separate statute with its own cause of action that makes it unlawful for a private employer to discharge anyone for reaching an age under 70.
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Minnesota Says "Materially Limits" Because the Legislature Struck "Substantially" in 1989 — and the Supreme Court Said That Lowered the Bar
Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 12, reaches a disability by four routes, and the verb is "materially limits" where the Americans with Disabilities Act says "substantially limits." Laws 1989, ch. 280, § 1, made that change on purpose, and Sigurdson v. Carl Bolander & Sons said so. What Minnesota does not have is the ADA's four pages of rules telling courts how to read its own definition.
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The Human Rights Act Protects Creed and Religion Without Defining Either, Writes No Duty to Accommodate Religious Practice, and Never Mentions Immigration Status
Minn. Stat. § 363A.08 lists creed and religion as separate protected grounds seven times each, and the only accommodation duty in the section runs to disability. The federal religious-accommodation duty comes from a definition, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(j). Minnesota does define national origin, at § 363A.03, subd. 25 — and chapter 363A contains no occurrence of the word "immigration" at all.
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In 2023 Minnesota Pulled Gender Identity Out of the Sexual-Orientation Definition and Made It Its Own Protected Class
Laws 2023, ch. 52, art. 19, § 47, struck the clause that had made gender identity a species of sexual orientation, and § 48 wrote a standalone definition at Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 50. The same act inserted "gender identity" into four subdivisions of the employment section. Minnesota also protects marital status, familial status, status with regard to public assistance, and membership in a local commission — four grounds Title VII does not list.
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A Minnesota employer with one employee owes pregnancy accommodations and 12 weeks of parenting leave — and FMLA leave can be counted against those 12 weeks
Minn. Stat. § 181.939, subd. 2, and § 181.940, subd. 3, both define 'employer' as an entity with one or more employees, so there is no size floor and no length-of-service requirement for Minnesota's 12-week pregnancy and parenting leave. Section 181.943 then permits that leave to be reduced by employer-provided paid leave and by FMLA leave taken for the same purpose, and Minn. Stat. § 268B.27, subd. 1, lets an employer run paid-leave benefits concurrently with it.
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A Release of an Age Claim Has to Clear Eight Statutory Requirements, and the Employer Carries the Burden of Proving It Did
29 U.S.C. § 626(f)(1) lists eight minimum conditions for a knowing and voluntary waiver of an Age Discrimination in Employment Act claim — including 21 days to consider, 45 days for a group program, and 7 days to revoke that cannot be shortened. Section 626(f)(3) puts the burden of proving the waiver on the party asserting it, and 29 C.F.R. § 1625.23 says keeping the money is not ratification.
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A Minnesota Discrimination Claim Is Usually Lost on the Calendar, Not the Merits
The Minnesota Human Rights Act gives one year from the occurrence of the practice — not two. The federal charge deadline is a separate deadline on a separate clock, and neither filing automatically preserves the other claim.
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Minnesota Proves a Discrimination Case With a 1973 Federal Framework It Adopted in 1978 — and in 1988 It Refused the Federal Escape Hatch That Goes With It
The Minnesota Human Rights Act states a prohibition and supplies no method of proof. The method comes from Sigurdson v. Isanti County: direct evidence, or a prima facie case, a legitimate reason, and pretext. Anderson v. Hunter, Keith, Marshall & Co. then rejected the mixed-motive 'same decision' analysis that federal law later wrote into Title VII and that the Supreme Court applied to the ADEA in Gross.
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Filing a Charge With the Department of Human Rights Does Not Hand Your Case to the Department
Minn. Stat. § 363A.28 gives the commissioner a screening duty, a probable-cause deadline, and a duty to attempt conciliation. It does not give you a lawyer, and every deadline that can end the claim still runs against you.
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Conciliation and Mediation Are Two Different Things at the Department of Human Rights — and Only One of Them Is the Commissioner's Own Statutory Duty
Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 8, makes conciliation something the commissioner must attempt; subd. 5 makes mediation something both sides must be offered. Each stops a different clock, chapter 363A never defines a conciliation agreement, and signing one ends the 15-day right to rescind.
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The EEOC Charge and the Department of Human Rights Charge Are Two Filings, and Neither Statute Says That Making One Makes the Other
Title VII's 300-day window is not a gift for living in Minnesota — 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1) ties it to having 'initially instituted proceedings with a State or local agency.' Section 2000e-5(c) then bars the federal charge for 60 days after state proceedings commence. Chapter 363A never mentions the EEOC, and the phrase 'work sharing agreement' appears in it exactly once.
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The Human Rights Act's Damages Provision Does Not Start With Back Pay — It Starts With Compensatory Damages Up to Three Times Actual Damages, and Back Pay Is an Optional Add-On to Reinstatement
Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 8, makes treble compensatory damages mandatory on a finding of an unfair discriminatory practice and a civil penalty to the state mandatory on a finding of a violation of sections 363A.08 to 363A.19. Back pay appears one subdivision later, attached to reinstatement, in a sentence built on the word 'may.'
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Minnesota Writes Retaliation Protection Eight Separate Times, and Each Statute Protects a Named Act — Complaining to HR About a Boss Is Not, by Itself, One of Them
There is no general Minnesota rule against retaliation. Eight statutes each protect a specific act — a report of a legal violation, opposition to a forbidden practice, a request for earned sick and safe time, an assertion of a wage right — and what makes a complaint protected is its subject, not who heard it.
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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.