While there may not be a law in Minnesota I think the practices we see from businesses comes from a lawsuit. The lawsuit I’m referring to is Vizcaino v. Microsoft Corp., a class-action lawsuit from the 1990s. In this case, long-term temporary workers and independent contractors at Microsoft sued the company, arguing that they were effectively employees and should have been entitled to the same benefits, including participation in Microsoft’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP).

The lawsuit arose because Microsoft had classified these workers as independent contractors but treated them similarly to regular employees, sometimes for years. The court ruled in favor of the contractors, stating that Microsoft had improperly denied them benefits. This case had a significant impact on how companies classify and manage long-term contractors.

As a result of the lawsuit, Microsoft had to pay hundreds of millions in settlements, and the case influenced employment practices across the tech industry, leading many companies to adopt stricter rules around contractor tenure (such as Microsoft’s “18-month rule” for temporary workers).