1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to employment; modifying provisions governing 
  1.3             payment of wages upon discharge; amending Minnesota 
  1.4             Statutes, section 181.13. 
  1.5   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.6      Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1998, section 181.13, is 
  1.7   amended to read: 
  1.8      181.13 [PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO PAY WAGES PROMPTLY.] 
  1.9      (a) When any employer employing labor within this state 
  1.10  discharges an employee, the wages or commissions actually earned 
  1.11  and unpaid at the time of the discharge are immediately due and 
  1.12  payable upon demand of the employee no later than the next 
  1.13  regular pay day or seven days following discharge, whichever 
  1.14  comes sooner.  If the employee's earned wages and commissions 
  1.15  are not paid within 24 hours after demand, whether the 
  1.16  employment was by the day, hour, week, month, or piece or by 
  1.17  commissions the time limit set by this section, the employer is 
  1.18  in default.  The discharged employee may charge and collect the 
  1.19  amount of the employee's average daily earnings at the rate 
  1.20  agreed upon in the contract of employment, for each day up to 15 
  1.21  days, that the employer is in default, until full payment or 
  1.22  other settlement, satisfactory to the discharged employee, is 
  1.23  made.  In the case of a public employer where approval of 
  1.24  expenditures by a governing board is required, the 24-hour 
  1.25  period for payment does not commence until the date of the first 
  2.1   regular or special meeting of the governing board following 
  2.2   discharge of the employee.  
  2.3      (b) The wages and commissions must be paid at the usual 
  2.4   place of payment unless the employee requests that the wages and 
  2.5   commissions be sent through the mails.  If, in accordance with a 
  2.6   request by the employee, the employee's wages and commissions 
  2.7   are sent to the employee through the mail, the wages and 
  2.8   commissions are paid as of the date of their postmark.