Minnesota Massage License: Requirements & Local Rules (2026)

Last updated: August 25, 2026

Minnesota does not license massage therapists. There is no state massage license, no state board, and no state education requirement — and in February 2026 the Legislature came exactly one vote short of changing that. What Minnesota has instead is a two-layer system nobody warns you about: a state law that imposes duties without a license (the chapter 146A client bill of rights), and a patchwork of city ordinances in which the two biggest cities regulate opposite things — St. Paul licenses you, Minneapolis licenses your business.

Which of those licenses you need depends entirely on where your table is and who pays you. Here is the whole picture, verified against the statutes and the cities’ own applications.

The State Layer: No License, But Real Duties (Chapter 146A)

Massage therapists in Minnesota practice as “unlicensed complementary and alternative health care practitioners” under Minnesota Statutes chapter 146A — a law that regulates conduct instead of requiring a credential. Before you provide any treatment, you must:

• Give each client a written Complementary and Alternative Health Care Client Bill of Rights, and post it prominently in your office.
• Get the client’s signed statement attesting that they received it, before any service is provided.
• Include the required contents: your name, title, business address and phone number; your degrees, training, experience and qualifications; and — verbatim, in capital letters — the statement that THE STATE OF MINNESOTA HAS NOT ADOPTED ANY EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING STANDARDS FOR UNLICENSED COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONERS.
• Accommodate clients who cannot read, have communication disabilities, or do not read or speak English.
• Stay out of medicine: an unlicensed practitioner may not provide a medical diagnosis or recommend that a client discontinue medically prescribed treatment.

The Minnesota Department of Health’s Office of Unlicensed Complementary and Alternative Health Care Practice enforces chapter 146A and keeps disciplinary records — and those records follow you: Minneapolis’s license application requires you to attach your disciplinary history from that office (or a statement that you have none). The bill of rights is not decorative paperwork; it is the state’s entire regulatory scheme, and the thing an inspector or a complaint will be measured against.

The City Layer: Minneapolis and St. Paul Regulate Opposite Things

Minneapolis licenses the business, not the therapist

• “Massage therapists do not need a license in Minneapolis” — the city says it in those words. An employee paid by a massage employer, or an independent contractor paid by a massage business who does not rent space, needs no license from the city or the state.
• The license attaches to the business, in three flavors: Commercial Massage and Bodywork Establishment (one or more therapists — a massage company, a salon or athletic club offering massage), Home Based, and Single Operator.
• The trap for solo therapists: owning your own practice makes you a business. A therapist working alone in a rented studio, paying their own taxes, with no employees, needs the Single Operator Massage license — and a spa where therapists rent space contains multiple single operators, each needing their own license. Renting a chair rather than being paid by the house is the line that flips you from “no license” to “licensed business.”
• The application is a real establishment application: scaled floor plan with square footage, source-of-funds documentation, a business plan, personal information forms for every owner, the lease, a Metropolitan Council sewer (SAC) determination letter, zoning approval, and your MDH CAP disciplinary history. Licenses expire January 1. Fees are set in the city’s fee schedule — confirm the current amounts when you apply.

St. Paul licenses the therapist

• A Massage Practitioner License costs $106, and eligibility is one of three routes: a valid St. Paul practitioner license issued within the past five years, successful completion of national certification examinations in therapeutic massage and bodywork, or a transcript from an accredited or licensed school showing at least 500 contact hours of postsecondary study.
• Insurance is a licensing condition: minimum $1,000,000 general liability and $1,000,000 professional liability, written by an insurer authorized in Minnesota, with the City of Saint Paul as an additional insured and a 30-day cancellation notice.
• The license lives and dies with the policy: it expires on the same date as the insurance and is renewable annually. Let the coverage lapse and the license lapses with it.

Beyond the twin cities, every suburb writes its own rules — the author of the 2026 licensure bill counted more than 100 local massage ordinances statewide. Bloomington, Richfield, Duluth and dozens of smaller cities each run their own programs with their own hour requirements and fees. The only reliable step: call the licensing office of the city where your table will actually stand before you sign anything.

The Licensure Bill That Failed by One Vote

HF 362 — establishing licensure for massage therapy and Asian bodywork therapy, with fees and criminal penalties — was introduced February 13, 2025. On February 23, 2026, the House Health Finance and Policy Committee took it up, and the motion to advance the amended bill failed on a 10–11 roll call with one abstention. The author’s case was the patchwork itself: one statewide standard in place of 100-plus city ordinances. Opponents argued licensure raises barriers to entry and could exclude apprenticeship-trained practitioners.

What it means for you: the local-ordinance system survived by a single vote, and the bill is still parked in committee with authors signing on as recently as March 2026. If you are training now, assume Minnesota licensure is a live possibility inside your career: a program of 500+ contact hours plus a national exam pass already satisfies St. Paul today and matches the education floor in every serious draft of a Minnesota license. Train to that bar and a future licensure law is a formality instead of a wall.

Moving In, Moving Out: the No-License State Problem

• Moving into Minnesota: no state credential to transfer to — you satisfy the city where you will practice, and an out-of-state license typically covers the education-and-exam proof a city ordinance wants.
• Moving out of Minnesota: plan for extra paperwork. Licensing states treat Minnesota therapists as unlicensed applicants, and some say so by name — New Mexico’s expedited licensure by credentials lists Minnesota among nine ineligible jurisdictions, and the Interstate Massage Compact lists Minnesota as currently ineligible. States that plan for this offer work-experience doors: Iowa accepts three years of documented massage work within the preceding four in place of a license. Keep transcripts, exam scores, city licenses and tax records — together they are the credential that travels.

Setting Up the Practice, In Order

1. Call the city licensing office where your table will stand. In Minneapolis, start with a License Inspector (612-673-2080); in St. Paul, the Department of Safety and Inspections (651-266-8989); elsewhere, the city clerk.
2. Prepare the chapter 146A client bill of rights — written copy per client, posted in the office, signed attestation before the first treatment.
3. Form the entity. A Minnesota LLC is $155 filed online or in person, $135 by mail — and the annual renewal is free while the LLC is active and in good standing. In Minneapolis, remember the ownership line: the moment you are the business, you are the one who needs the license.
4. Bind insurance at St. Paul’s level — $1M/$1M is the strictest city standard and satisfies everyone else’s expectations too.
5. Assemble the city application — in Minneapolis that means floor plan, business plan, source of funds, lease, SAC letter and your MDH CAP history; in St. Paul, your transcript or exam proof and the insurance certificate.
6. Diary the renewals: Minneapolis licenses expire January 1; St. Paul’s expires with your insurance; the LLC renews free each calendar year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a license to practice massage therapy in Minnesota?

Not from the state – Minnesota has no state massage therapy license and is one of only a handful of states without statewide regulation. Massage therapists practice under the state’s Unlicensed Complementary and Alternative Health Care Practices law (Minnesota Statutes chapter 146A), which imposes duties rather than a license: a written client bill of rights before treatment and no medical diagnosing. The licenses that do exist are city ordinances – St. Paul licenses the practitioner, Minneapolis licenses the business – so the controlling rules are wherever your table is.

What is the difference between Minneapolis and St. Paul massage licensing?

They regulate opposite things. Minneapolis does not license massage therapists at all – it licenses massage businesses, and an employee or independent contractor paid by a massage business needs no license in Minneapolis or from the state. But a solo therapist who owns their own practice needs a Single Operator Massage license because they ARE the business. St. Paul does the reverse: it licenses the practitioner ($106), requiring a prior St. Paul license, a national certification exam, or a 500-contact-hour transcript, plus $1,000,000 in both general and professional liability insurance.

What does Minnesota’s chapter 146A require of massage therapists?

Before providing treatment, an unlicensed complementary and alternative health care practitioner must give each client a written client bill of rights, post it prominently in the office, and obtain the client’s signed statement attesting that they received it. The document must include the practitioner’s name, title, address, phone number and qualifications, followed by a statement in capital letters that the State of Minnesota has not adopted educational or training standards for unlicensed practitioners. The law also forbids providing a medical diagnosis or recommending that a client discontinue medically prescribed treatment. The Minnesota Department of Health enforces it.

Is Minnesota going to adopt a state massage license?

It came one vote short of advancing in February 2026. HF 362, which would establish licensure for massage therapy and Asian bodywork therapy, failed to move out of the House Health Finance and Policy Committee on February 23, 2026 – the motion to advance it failed on a 10-11 roll call with one abstention. The bill’s author argued licensure would replace the patchwork of more than 100 local ordinances with one statewide standard. The bill remains in committee, so the local-ordinance system is still the law.

Do Minnesota massage therapists need liability insurance?

The state does not require it, but St. Paul does as a condition of its practitioner license: minimum general liability coverage of $1,000,000 and professional liability coverage of $1,000,000, from an insurer authorized to do business in Minnesota, with the City listed as an additional insured – and the license itself expires whenever the insurance does. Even outside St. Paul, landlords and employers routinely require a certificate of insurance, so most working therapists carry coverage.

Forming the company, taxes, insurance, and hiring are covered in our full guide to starting a business in Minnesota.

Sources

Source	What It Covers
Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 146A	The unlicensed complementary and alternative health care practice regime: the client bill of rights, its required contents and capital-letters statement, the signed attestation, and the ban on medical diagnosis
Minnesota House — Health Finance and Policy Committee minutes, Feb. 23, 2026	The 10–11 roll call (one abstention) on which the motion to advance HF 362, as amended, failed
Minnesota Legislature — HF 362 status	Introduction February 13, 2025, referral to Health Finance and Policy, and continuing author additions into March 2026
City of Minneapolis — Massage licensing	“Massage therapists do not need a license in Minneapolis”; business licensing; the Single Operator category, application requirements and the MDH CAP disciplinary-history attachment
City of Saint Paul — Massage Practitioner License	The three eligibility routes (prior license, national exams, 500 contact hours), the $1,000,000/$1,000,000 insurance condition, the $106 fee on the Class R application, and expiration tied to the insurance
Minnesota Secretary of State — Filing Fee Schedule	LLC articles of organization at $135 by mail / $155 online or in person, and the $0 annual renewal for active LLCs