Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA)

The Minnesota Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment, and its unfair employment practices are codified at Minn. Stat. § 363A.08. The Act defines a covered “employer” as a person who has one or more employees, so it reaches even a business with a single employee. Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 16. (One duty is narrower: the MHRA’s reasonable-accommodation requirement applies only to employers with 15 or more employees. Minn. Stat. § 363A.08, subd. 6.)

Under the Act, it is an unfair employment practice for an employer to refuse to hire, to discharge, or otherwise to discriminate against a person in the terms or conditions of employment because of a protected characteristic, except when based on a bona fide occupational qualification. Minn. Stat. § 363A.08, subd. 2. The same prohibition reaches a labor organization that denies membership and an employment agency that denies a referral on a protected basis. Minn. Stat. § 363A.08, subds. 1, 3.

The Act also reaches conduct around a violation. It is an unfair discriminatory practice for any person to intentionally aid, abet, incite, compel, or coerce a violation, or to obstruct or prevent compliance with the Act. Minn. Stat. § 363A.14. It is a separate unfair discriminatory practice for an employer (or other participant in the discrimination) to intentionally engage in any reprisal (which the statute defines to include any form of intimidation, retaliation, or harassment) against a person because that person opposed a forbidden practice or filed, testified in, assisted, or participated in an enforcement charge, investigation, or proceeding. Minn. Stat. § 363A.15.

Before you are hired, an employer (or employment agency or labor organization) generally cannot require or request that you furnish information pertaining to a protected characteristic, except where based on a bona fide occupational qualification. Minn. Stat. § 363A.08, subd. 4. The MHRA does not list “medical condition” as its own protected class; medical and health information is reached through the disability category.

The protected characteristics in employment are race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, familial status, membership or activity in a local commission, disability, sexual orientation, and age. Minn. Stat. § 363A.08, subd. 2. Two are easy to miss in older summaries. Gender identity received its own statutory definition under the 2023 amendments to the MHRA. Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 50. And “race” is now statutorily defined to include traits associated with race, such as hair texture and hair styles like braids, locs, and twists, under the 2023 CROWN Act. Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 36a.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

The EEOC was created by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-4(a). Title VII makes it an unlawful employment practice to discriminate against an individual because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a). It applies only to an employer engaged in an industry affecting commerce that has fifteen or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, which covers the great majority of employers. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(b).

The EEOC also enforces several other federal statutes, each with its own controlling law:

  • Pregnancy. Title VII, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, treats discrimination because of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions as sex discrimination. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k). As of June 27, 2023, the EEOC also enforces the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which goes further than non-discrimination: it requires a covered employer to provide reasonable accommodations for a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, absent undue hardship (its implementing final rule took effect June 18, 2024).
  • Age. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), not Title VII, protects individuals who are at least 40 years old. 29 U.S.C. § 631(a). It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against such an individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of age. 29 U.S.C. § 623(a). The ADEA applies only to employers with 20 or more employees, a higher floor than Title VII’s 15. 29 U.S.C. § 630(b). So an employer with 15 to 19 employees can be covered by Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act, yet not by the ADEA.
  • Disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against a qualified individual on the basis of disability. 42 U.S.C. § 12112(a). The EEOC enforces its employment provisions. 42 U.S.C. § 12117(a).
  • Genetic information. Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act bars discrimination because of genetic information, including genetic test results and family medical history. 42 U.S.C. § 2000ff-1.
  • Equal pay. The Equal Pay Act bars paying employees of one sex less than the other for equal work requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions in the same establishment. 29 U.S.C. § 206(d).

In a Title VII intentional-discrimination case, you may seek compensatory and punitive damages, and either side may demand a jury trial. Those damages were added by the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and are codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1981a; the original 1964 Act provided only equitable relief such as back pay and reinstatement. Punitive damages require a showing of malice or reckless indifference, are unavailable against government employers, and the combined compensatory and punitive award is capped by employer size (from $50,000 to $300,000 per complaining party). 42 U.S.C. § 1981a.

Filing a Claim

If you believe you were discriminated against because of a protected characteristic, you have a choice of forum, and the two systems work differently.

Under the MHRA, you are not required to exhaust any administrative process before suing. You may file a verified charge with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR). Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 1. Or you may bring a civil action seeking redress for an unfair discriminatory practice directly in district court. Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 1. Either way, the claim must be brought within one year after the discriminatory practice. Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3(a). That one-year period is suspended while the parties are voluntarily engaged in a dispute-resolution process such as mediation or conciliation. Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3(b).

A federal claim works differently. Before suing under Title VII (and likewise the ADA and ADEA), you generally must first file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That charge must be filed within 180 days of the discriminatory act, a deadline extended to 300 days where you have first instituted proceedings with a state or local fair-employment agency. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1). Because Minnesota is a deferral state (the MDHR enforces a parallel state law under a worksharing agreement with the EEOC), the 300-day deadline generally applies to Minnesota charges. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1).

The older idea that a court is powerless to hear a discrimination claim until an agency has “considered” it no longer holds. The MHRA expressly authorizes a direct private suit. Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 1. And for Title VII, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the charge-filing requirement is “a processing rule, albeit a mandatory one, not a jurisdictional prescription delineating the adjudicatory authority of courts.” Fort Bend County v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 1843 (2019). You may proceed in court on a Notice of Right to Sue; the EEOC does not have to resolve the merits first, and the employer can forfeit the charge-filing defense by not raising it in time.

The charge requirement also does not apply to every claim: a race-discrimination claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 may be brought without any EEOC charge.

After the EEOC processes a charge, it will either dismiss the claim or notify you of your right to sue, and that Notice of Right to Sue lets you file a civil action within ninety days after the notice is given. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1). In select cases, the EEOC brings its own enforcement lawsuit: after a charge is filed and conciliation fails, it may bring a civil action against any respondent, other than a government, governmental agency, or political subdivision, named in the charge. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1).

On the state side, a charge filed with the commissioner must be in writing, on a form provided by the commissioner, and signed by the charging party. Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 1. That charge (or a civil action) must be filed within one year after the discriminatory practice. Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3(a).