Minnesota Ban the Box Law: Employer Rules and Conviction Review

Minnesota’s Ban the Box law bars every public and private employer in the state from asking about criminal history on a job application or at any point before an interview or a conditional job offer. The rule has been in effect since January 1, 2014, and is codified at Minn. Stat. § 364.021.¹ A separate statute, Minn. Stat. § 364.03, then limits what an employer can do with your record once it does come up, which is where most applicants with a conviction have more room than they realize.

When an Employer Can Ask About Your Record

No criminal-history questions are allowed on the initial application. That means no checkbox, no written question, and no electronic field asking whether you have been convicted of or charged with a crime.² The employer also cannot run a background check or use a third-party screening service at that stage.

The earliest the subject can come up is when you have been selected for an interview. If the hiring process has no interview step, the employer must wait until it extends a conditional offer.¹ You always get a chance to present your qualifications first.

Employers are still allowed to tell you upfront that a position will require a background check, or that certain convictions will disqualify candidates. What they cannot do is collect the information before the interview or conditional offer stage.¹

Who the Law Covers

Every public and private employer in Minnesota is subject to the law. There is no minimum size: a single-person shop and a large company with a Minneapolis satellite office follow the same rules.¹ For remote workers, general employment-law principles tie compliance to the state where the work is physically performed, so an out-of-state employer hiring someone who will work from a home office in Duluth should treat the law as applying.

Two carve-outs exist. The Minnesota Department of Corrections is excluded by statute. The second exemption covers any employer with a separate state or federal legal duty to run a criminal background check or consider criminal history during hiring.¹ That exemption pulls in a meaningful slice of jobs:

Healthcare roles regulated by the Minnesota Department of Health, which require background checks through the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI before licensure.³
Positions with direct contact with vulnerable adults or children, which generally fall under Department of Human Services background study requirements.
Law enforcement positions, where early screening is needed to meet peace officer licensing standards.
Jobs at FDIC-insured banks, where federal law independently restricts hiring people convicted of offenses involving dishonesty, breach of trust, or money laundering without written agency consent.⁴

Outside of positions covered by a separate screening statute, the standard timing rule applies regardless of an employer’s internal preferences.

How a Conviction Must Be Evaluated

Reaching the interview stage and disclosing a conviction is not an automatic rejection. Under Minn. Stat. § 364.03, an employer that learns about a conviction must weigh specific factors before concluding it disqualifies you. Seeing a record and moving to the next candidate is not a lawful decision under this statute.

The Relevance Factors

The statute directs the employer to look at whether the conviction actually relates to the job by considering:

The seriousness of the offense. A decades-old misdemeanor carries far less weight than a recent felony.
The connection to the job. A theft conviction may be relevant for a cash-handling position but not for a warehouse role with no financial responsibilities.
Your ability to do the work, meaning whether the conviction genuinely affects your capacity to perform the duties the job requires.⁵

Evidence of Rehabilitation You Can Present

Even when a conviction does relate to the job, the employer must consider evidence that you have moved past it. The statute lists several things that count:

Time elapsed since the offense and whether you have stayed out of trouble since.
Your age at the time of the offense.
The circumstances and social conditions surrounding what happened.
Proof of rehabilitation, including completion of probation or parole, a release order, reference letters from people who know you post-release, and at least one year without a subsequent conviction.⁵

Come to the interview prepared. Bring completion-of-sentence paperwork, discharge orders, program certificates, and letters of reference. The employer is legally required to weigh that evidence, and documentation shifts the conversation from your worst moment to your current trajectory.

If an Application Breaks the Rule

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights enforces the law for private employers. If you encounter a job application that asks about criminal history, you can submit it to the department through its online form or by emailing BanTheBox.MDHR@state.mn.us.⁶ You can submit confidentially, though the department will not be able to follow up with you if you leave your contact information off.

Set your expectations. The department’s approach is primarily compliance-focused: when it finds a violation, it usually works with the employer to fix the application rather than imposing penalties.⁷ The administrative fines available under Minn. Stat. § 364.06 are capped at modest monthly amounts and are paid to the state, not to the applicant.⁸ The most common outcome is a corrected application, not compensation.

If you believe the employer’s conduct also amounts to race or national-origin discrimination, a separate charge of discrimination with the department or the EEOC may fit better and carries broader remedies. The EEOC has issued guidance that blanket criminal-history exclusions can violate Title VII when they have a disparate impact on protected groups.⁹

One more federal layer worth knowing: when an employer uses a third-party screening service to pull a background report, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a standalone written disclosure, your written authorization, and a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report before any rejection becomes final.¹⁰¹¹ That track runs separately from Minnesota’s timing rule and gives you a chance to dispute errors in the report before the decision is finalized.

Extra Protections Inside Minneapolis

If the job is within Minneapolis city limits, more protection stacks on top of state law. As of August 1, 2025, the city’s civil rights ordinance added “justice-impacted” status as a protected class. Employers covered by the ordinance cannot base hiring decisions solely on criminal history unless it directly relates to the safety requirements or limitations of the job, and they must consider the nature and timing of the offense, whether you were actually convicted, your age at the time, and evidence of rehabilitation before any adverse decision. Complaints about violations of the Minneapolis ordinance go through the city’s civil rights enforcement process rather than the state department.

Applying With a Record: What Actually Helps

Do not volunteer information early. If the application does not ask, do not offer it. The law gives you the right to be evaluated on your qualifications first.
Prepare a short, honest account for when the question does come up. Focus on what happened, what you learned, and what has changed. Employers respond better to candidates who own their past clearly than to candidates who seem evasive.
Gather your documentation before you start interviewing: completion-of-sentence paperwork, discharge orders, reference letters from people who know you post-release, and certificates from any programs you have completed. All of it carries legal weight under Minn. Stat. § 364.03.⁵
Check your own criminal record before job hunting. Errors are more common than most people realize, and disputing an inaccuracy before an employer sees it is far easier than correcting the record after a rejection.
Report illegal applications. Even if the fix does not help you with that particular job, it helps every applicant who comes after you.

1
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 364.021 – Public and Private Employment; Consideration of Criminal Records
2
Minnesota Department of Human Rights. Technical Guidance 364.021
3
FindLaw. Minnesota Code 144.0572 – Criminal History Background Checks on Applicants, Licensees, and Other Occupations Regulated by Commissioner of Health
4
FDIC. Section 19
5
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 364.03 – Consideration of Criminal Record; Public Employment; Licensing
6
Minnesota.gov. Ban the Box Submission Form
7
Minnesota Department of Human Rights. Ban-the-Box and Criminal Records in Employment
8
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code Chapter 364 – Criminal Offenders Rehabilitation Act
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports