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April 2021
Wage disclosure protection
Every Minnesota employer must comply with the wage disclosure protection law in the Women's Economic Security Act (WESA). Under this law, no employer can prohibit employees from sharing information about their wages and working conditions with other people (Minnesota Statutes 181.172).
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Employers may not:
- stop employees from telling others about their wages or conditions of
employment;
- require employees to sign a waiver that takes away their right to tell others
about their wages or working conditions; or
- treat employees differently because they told someone about their wages or
working conditions.
What are employers required to do?
Employers must provide a notice to employee's about this law in the company's employee handbook.
Sample notice to employees:
Under the Minnesota Wage Disclosure Protection law, you have the right to tell any person the amount of your own wages. Your employer cannot retaliate against you for disclosing your own wages. Your remedies under the wage disclosure protection law are to bring a civil action against your employer and/or file a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry at 651-284-5070 or 800-342-5354.
The law does not:
- require employees to tell anyone about their wages;
- allow employees to share proprietary information (trade secrets) or other legally protected information of the employer;
- remove any rights provided under the National Labor Relations Act; and
- allow employees to share wage information with employees of a competing employer.
Other resources
Find additional information on the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry's wage disclosure protection fact sheet, the wage disclosure FAQs webpage and the Women's Economic Security Act (WESA) 2020 annual report.
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