Minnesota Employment GuideMinnesota employment law, for employees
Minnesota Employment Guide is a publication of Madgett Law, LLC. It is general information about Minnesota law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Whether any of it applies to your job turns on facts this site cannot know. This is attorney advertising.

Defined by statute

Good reason caused by the employer

The three-part statutory test that lets someone who quit still receive unemployment benefits — a reason directly related to the employment, for which the employer is responsible, adverse to the worker, and compelling enough that an average reasonable worker would quit.

Nothing on this page is advice about your job, and no article can be. If you want your own facts looked at, a Minnesota employment attorney can do that — and several of the deadlines described on this site are short enough that waiting is itself a decision.

Also called: good reason to quit; quit for good reason.

(a) A good reason caused by the employer for quitting is a reason:

(1) that is directly related to the employment and for which the employer is responsible;

(2) that is adverse to the worker; and

(3) that would compel an average, reasonable worker to quit and become unemployed rather than remaining in the employment.

Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 3. All three are required. Paragraph (c) adds a step that is easy to lose a case on: where the complaint is adverse working conditions, “the applicant must complain to the employer and give the employer a reasonable opportunity to correct” them first. Paragraph (e) rules out quitting after notice of a future discharge or layoff. Paragraph (g) makes the definition “exclusive and no other definition applies.”

Where this comes up

Sources checked September 8, 2026. Citations independently verified against the primary source September 8, 2026.

Was my firing illegal?