Primary statute
Minn. Stat. § 181.988
Primary verifiedhttps://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/181.988
- Effective
- 2023-07-01
- Last amended
- 2023-07-01
- Research verified
- 2026-05-08
Statutory ban
Non-compete enforceability in Minnesota
Non-competes signed on or after July 1, 2023 are void. Pre-July 2023 agreements remain governed by prior law.
What this means for you
Minnesota is an absolute-ban state: post-employment non-competes are void by statute for most workers — regardless of salary, industry, or how "reasonable" the clause looks. The narrow exceptions are typically sale-of-business and partnership-dissolution covenants.
Doctrine
Red-pencil statutory void. Courts treat over-broad non-competes as void in their entirety — no judicial reformation is permitted.
Choice-of-law warning
Bars out-of-state forum-selection and choice-of-law clauses for Minnesota-resident employees on covenants signed on or after July 1, 2023.
Gotchas
- Prospective only — non-competes signed BEFORE July 1, 2023 fall under prior common-law reasonableness analysis.
- Customer non-solicitation and confidential information clauses are NOT void under §181.988.
- Statute provides for fee-shifting — employees who win get attorney's fees.
Recent amendments
2023 — 2023 Minn. Laws Ch. 53, art. 6, § 1
Enacted §181.988 voiding non-competes prospective only; sale-of-business and dissolution carve-outs preserved; NDAs and customer non-solicitation NOT covered.
Federal context
The FTC's 2024 federal non-compete ban was vacated nationwide in Ryan v. FTC and removed from the Code of Federal Regulations in February 2026. There is no federal ban in force — so Minnesota's state law controls. Read the federal status.
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