Minnesota Workers’ Comp Exemption
We file workers’ compensation exemptions for Minnesota sole proprietors, LLC members, and corporate officers. Send us your details and we’ll confirm whether you qualify and handle the filing.
When coverage is required in Minnesota
All Minnesota employers are required to carry workers' compensation insurance or qualify as self-insured, EXCEPT for the specific categories of excluded employments listed in Minn. Stat. §176.041 (sole proprietors, certain family members, and owners of small closely-held entities as described below). There is no general small-employer headcount exemption — the exemptions are role-based (owner/family status), not based on total company size.
Who can be excluded in Minnesota
Sole proprietors
A sole proprietor (and their spouse, parent, or child, regardless of age, working in the business) is automatically excluded from coverage under Minn. Stat. §176.041, subd. 1. No filing is required for this base exclusion. The sole proprietor and qualifying family members may voluntarily elect coverage under subd. 1a.
Partners
Partners in a partnership (including farm/business operations) and their qualifying family members are excluded on the same basis as sole proprietors under §176.041, subd. 1, and may likewise elect coverage voluntarily.
LLC members
Managers of an LLC with 10 or fewer members and less than 22,880 hours of payroll in the preceding calendar year are excluded if they hold at least 25% membership interest in the LLC (exclusive of family-owned interest); their spouse, parent, or child working in the business is also excluded.
Corporate officers
Executive officers of a closely held corporation (10 or fewer shareholders, less than 22,880 hours of payroll in the preceding calendar year) are excluded if elected/appointed per the corporation's charter or bylaws AND they own at least 25% of the capital stock (exclusive of stock held by other family members). Their spouse, parent, or child working in the business is also excluded. Executive officers of family farm corporations and their qualifying family members are excluded on similar terms. No specific numeric cap on the count of excluded officers was found beyond the 10-shareholder entity-size limit.
Construction rules in Minnesota
No construction-specific ownership/exemption rule for owners/officers was found in §176.041. (Note: Minnesota separately runs an Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate program specifically for the construction trades, but that certificate concerns worker classification as an independent contractor, not the owner/officer WC-exclusion rules described here — the two are different legal mechanisms and should not be conflated.)
How the exemption is filed
The base exclusions above (sole proprietor, partner, qualifying LLC manager, qualifying corporate officer, and their immediate family) apply automatically by statute — no certificate or fee is required to be excluded in the first place. A written election filed with the Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) IS required only to extend the exclusion to more distant relatives (within the third degree of kinship, e.g. siblings, uncles, nieces, grandchildren) of an excluded officer or LLC manager. Any excluded person may also voluntarily elect INTO coverage under subd. 1a.
- Form
- No state exemption form — see above
- Statute
- Minn. Stat. §176.041
- Market
- Competitive — coverage is bought from a private carrier.
Notes and open questions
Statute text was read directly from the official Minnesota Revisor of Statutes site (revisor.mn.gov) — this is the highest-confidence source used across all 5 states. A PDF titled 'Certificate of Exemption' found at dli.mn.gov (rbc_exemption13.pdf) was checked and turned out to be a Minnesota UNEMPLOYMENT insurance exemption form issued by DEED, not a workers'-compensation form — it was deliberately excluded from this record to avoid conflating unemployment insurance with workers' comp. No general state-issued WC exemption certificate/fee was found for the base owner exclusions; that appears to genuinely not exist as a filed product for the common case.
Sources
- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/176.041
- https://www.dli.mn.gov/business/workers-compensation/work-comp-mandatory-coverage-information
Source material dated undated (current codified statute text, retrieved 2026-08-30). Compiled from official Minnesota sources as a starting point, not legal advice — rules change, and your situation may turn on facts this page cannot see. Confirm with Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) or ask us and we’ll check it for you.
Workers' comp exemption filing in Minnesota
Tell us about your Minnesota business and we'll confirm whether you qualify for an exemption.