Starting January 1, 2026, Minnesota employers must allow expanded breaks to all employees in Minnesota. Currently, employers are only required to provide “sufficient time to eat a meal” every eight hours of work, and “adequate time from work” to use the nearest restroom every four hours. This will change to a thirty-minute meal break when working more than six consecutive hours and a fifteen-minute work break every four consecutive work hours. Employers that fail to do so will be liable for an equal amount of time paid to the employee as liquidated damages. However, the amendments seemingly leave more questions than answers—which the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (MNDOLI) is not ready to answer yet.

• The amended Minnesota Mandatory Meal Break and Mandatory Work Breaks laws provide that a meal break need not be paid (assuming employees receive the full thirty minutes uninterrupted) but work breaks must be paid at the employee’s regular rate of pay.
• The only exclusion from these requirements is collective bargaining agreements that provide for different meal and rest periods.
• An employer must pay an employee “an equal amount of liquidated damages” if employees are not allowed to take their break.

The Statutory Revisions—What We Know and What We Don’t (For Now)

The revisions to the statutes seem simple enough, but as applied in the real world, several questions remain. MNDOLI is not providing guidance with respect to how they will be interpreting the revisions...

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