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.
The disqualification and its exceptions are one sentence
Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 1, opens:
An applicant who quit employment is ineligible for all unemployment benefits according to subdivision 10 except when:
Everything after that colon is a list of ten circumstances in which a quit does not disqualify. The general rule and the exceptions were enacted together, and the exceptions are not a matter of discretion or sympathy — they are elements.
The claim: "If you quit, you can never get unemployment."
That is false, and the statute says so in the sentence that creates the rule. Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 1, makes an applicant who quit ineligible "except when" one of ten enumerated situations applies. Minnesota also directs how the whole chapter is read: it "is remedial in nature and must be applied in favor of awarding unemployment benefits," "[a]ny legal conclusion that results in an applicant being ineligible for unemployment benefits must be fully supported by the facts," and "any statutory provision that would preclude an applicant from receiving benefits must be narrowly construed." § 268.031, subd. 2. The provision that precludes benefits for a quit is the provision that gets read narrowly.
The ten exceptions, as the Legislature wrote them
Subdivision 1’s list, in full:
(1) the applicant quit the employment because of a good reason caused by the employer as defined in subdivision 3;
(2) the applicant quit the employment to accept other covered employment that provided equal to or better terms and conditions of employment, but the applicant did not work long enough at the second employment to have sufficient subsequent wages paid to satisfy the period of ineligibility that would otherwise be imposed under subdivision 10 for quitting the first employment;
(3) the applicant quit the employment within 30 calendar days of beginning the employment and the employment was unsuitable;
(4) the employment was unsuitable and the applicant quit to enter reemployment assistance training;
(5) the employment was part time and the applicant also had full-time employment in the base period, from which full-time employment the applicant separated because of reasons for which the applicant would not be ineligible, and the wage credits from the full-time employment are sufficient to meet the minimum requirements to establish a benefit account under section 268.07;
(6) the applicant quit because the employer notified the applicant that the applicant was going to be laid off because of lack of work within 30 calendar days. An applicant who quit employment within 30 calendar days of a notified date of layoff because of lack of work is ineligible for unemployment benefits through the end of the week that includes the scheduled date of layoff;
(7) the applicant quit the employment (i) because the applicant’s serious illness or injury made it medically necessary that the applicant quit; or (ii) in order to provide necessary care because of the illness, injury, or disability of an immediate family member of the applicant. This exception only applies if the applicant informs the employer of the medical problem and requests accommodation and no reasonable accommodation is made available. …
(8) the applicant’s loss of child care for the applicant’s minor child caused the applicant to quit the employment, provided the applicant made reasonable effort to obtain other child care and requested time off or other accommodation from the employer and no reasonable accommodation is available. …
(9) the applicant quit because domestic abuse, sexual assault, or harassment or stalking of the applicant or an immediate family member of the applicant, necessitated the applicant’s quitting the employment. …
(10) the applicant quit in order to relocate to accompany a spouse: (i) who is in the military; or (ii) whose job was transferred by the spouse’s employer to a new location making it impractical for the applicant to commute.
The ellipses mark subordinate paragraphs quoted below. Nothing else was omitted from the list.
Good reason caused by the employer: three elements, one procedural step, and a closed door
This is the exception most applicants reach for and the one most of them lose. Subdivision 3(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.
All three, and the third is the demanding one. The comparison is to an average, reasonable worker, not to the applicant, and the alternative being weighed is not another job — it is becoming unemployed. Subdivision 3(b) adds that “[t]he analysis required in paragraph (a) must be applied to the specific facts of each case,” so nothing about a category of reasons is settled in advance.
Then the step that decides many of these cases. Subdivision 3(c):
If an applicant was subjected to adverse working conditions by the employer, the applicant must complain to the employer and give the employer a reasonable opportunity to correct the adverse working conditions before that may be a good reason caused by the employer for quitting.
The claim: "The conditions were bad enough that anyone would have quit, so I have a good reason caused by the employer."
Not without the complaint. Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 3(c), conditions the adverse-working-conditions route on two things the applicant has to have done before quitting: complain to the employer, and give the employer a reasonable opportunity to correct the conditions. The subdivision does not make the complaint optional where the conditions were severe, and it does not carve out an exception for an employer the applicant expected would do nothing. It also does not say the complaint must be in writing or take any particular form — the statute is silent on form, and this page does not fill that silence.
Three more paragraphs of subdivision 3 close routes off or open one:
- (d) “A reason for quitting employment is not a good reason caused by the employer for quitting if the reason for quitting occurred because of the applicant’s employment misconduct.”
- (e) “Notification of discharge in the future, including a layoff because of lack of work, is not a good reason caused by the employer for quitting.” Note how that interacts with the separate exception in subd. 1(6): being told a layoff is coming within 30 calendar days is an exception under clause (6), on clause (6)’s own terms, but it is never a “good reason caused by the employer.”
- (f) Sexual harassment is a good reason caused by the employer “if it results from sexual harassment of which the employer was aware, or should have been aware, and the employer failed to take timely and appropriate action,” with the conduct defined in the same paragraph.
And (g) shuts the definition: “The definition of a good reason caused by the employer for quitting employment provided by this subdivision is exclusive and no other definition applies.” A reason that is genuinely good, and genuinely the employer’s fault, but does not meet paragraph (a) is not within this exception.
“Quit to take a better job” is not the exception people think it is
Read clause (2) again. It does not say that quitting for a better job preserves eligibility. It describes a specific sequence: you left job one for covered employment on equal or better terms, and you then “did not work long enough at the second employment to have sufficient subsequent wages paid to satisfy the period of ineligibility that would otherwise be imposed under subdivision 10 for quitting the first employment.”
The clause exists because of subdivision 10. A quit disqualifies you until you have earned enough in later covered employment to clear the requalification threshold; clause (2) prevents the first quit from following you into a claim based on the second job when the second job ended too soon for you to work the disqualification off.
“Covered employment” is a defined term, not a synonym for a paycheck. Section 268.035, subd. 12(a), defines it by where the work is performed — generally, an employee’s entire employment during a calendar quarter where “50 percent or more of the employment during the quarter is performed in Minnesota,” with additional rules for work split across states.
The claim: "You can always quit for a better job and still draw unemployment."
The statute does not say that. Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 1(2), is not a general permission to leave one job for another. It applies where the new job was covered employment, on terms "equal to or better" than the old job, and the applicant "did not work long enough at the second employment to have sufficient subsequent wages paid to satisfy the period of ineligibility that would otherwise be imposed under subdivision 10 for quitting the first employment." Leaving for a job that pays less, for work that is not covered employment, or for a job that never starts is outside the clause as written.
Thirty calendar days, and what “unsuitable” means
Clause (3) is the shortest route on the list: “the applicant quit the employment within 30 calendar days of beginning the employment and the employment was unsuitable.” Both halves are required, and the 30 days are calendar days running from the beginning of the employment.
“Suitable employment” is defined at § 268.035, subd. 23a(a):
Suitable employment means employment in the applicant’s labor market area that is reasonably related to the applicant’s qualifications. In determining whether any employment is suitable for an applicant, the degree of risk involved to the health and safety, physical fitness, prior training, experience, length of unemployment, prospects for securing employment in the applicant’s customary occupation, and the distance of the employment from the applicant’s residence is considered.
The rest of subdivision 23a supplies rules that can decide a case on their own. Paragraph (e): “If a majority of the applicant’s weeks of employment in the base period includes part-time employment, part-time employment in a position with comparable skills and comparable hours that pays comparable wages is suitable employment,” and “[f]ull-time employment is not suitable employment for an applicant if a majority of the applicant’s weeks of employment in the base period includes part-time employment.” Paragraph (c) makes suitability move over time: “Employment that may not be suitable because of lower wages during the early weeks of the applicant’s unemployment may become suitable as the duration of unemployment lengthens.”
Clause (4) is the companion for a longer-held unsuitable job: no 30-day limit, but the quit has to be “to enter reemployment assistance training.”
Medical reasons, and the conditions attached
Clause (7) covers the applicant’s own serious illness or injury and care for an immediate family member, and then narrows both:
This exception only applies if the applicant informs the employer of the medical problem and requests accommodation and no reasonable accommodation is made available.
That is two acts by the applicant — inform the employer of the medical problem, and request accommodation — plus a fact, that no reasonable accommodation was made available. All three precede the quit.
The clause carries two more sentences. On substance use disorder: “If the applicant’s serious illness is substance use disorder, this exception does not apply if the applicant was previously diagnosed with substance use disorder or had treatment for substance use disorder, and since that diagnosis or treatment has failed to make consistent efforts to control the substance use disorder.” And a warning about the rest of the claim: “This exception raises an issue of the applicant’s being available for suitable employment under section 268.085, subdivision 1, that the commissioner must determine.” Clearing the quit disqualification is not the same as being eligible week to week, and clause (7) puts that second question on the table by operation of the statute. Clause (8), on loss of child care, carries the identical availability sentence.
Domestic abuse, sexual assault, harassment, and stalking
Clause (9) does not require that the abuse have anything to do with the employer. It requires that the abuse “necessitated the applicant’s quitting the employment,” and it defines its own terms by cross-reference:
For purposes of this subdivision:
(i) “domestic abuse” has the meaning given in section 518B.01;
(ii) “sexual assault” means an act that would constitute a violation of sections 609.342 to 609.3453 or 609.352; and
(iii) “harassment” or “stalking” means an act that would constitute a violation of section 609.749[.]
The definitions are drawn from criminal and protective-order statutes, but nothing in clause (9) requires a charge, a conviction, or an order.
What the disqualification actually costs
Subdivision 10 is where “ineligible” gets its content, and it is not a fixed penalty. Paragraph (a):
Ineligibility from the payment of all unemployment benefits under subdivisions 1 and 4 is for the duration of the applicant’s unemployment and until the end of the calendar week that the applicant had total wages paid for actual work performed in subsequent covered employment sufficient to meet one-half of the requirements of section 268.07, subdivision 2, paragraph (a).
Three things follow from that sentence. The disqualification is open-ended — it lasts as long as the unemployment does. It ends only through wages paid for actual work performed in subsequent covered employment, not through the passage of time. And the threshold is one-half of the ordinary benefit-account requirement in § 268.07, subd. 2(a) — which is itself stated not as a dollar figure but as “wage credits of at least 5.3 percent of the state’s average annual wage rounded down to the next lower $100,” so the number moves each year. Paragraph (b) fixes the start: the ineligibility “begins on the Sunday of the week that the applicant became separated from employment.”
Whether you quit at all is decided by the statute
Before any of this matters, someone has to decide that what happened was a quit. That is not the employer’s call and not a matter of what the separation paperwork says — § 268.095, subd. 2, defines a quit and subd. 5 defines a discharge, and each rules out its constructive version: “the theory of a constructive quit does not apply,” subd. 2(b), and “the theory of a constructive discharge does not apply,” subd. 5(c). The mechanics, along with the misconduct standard that governs discharges and the ten categories the Legislature removed from “employment misconduct,” are covered in the guide on the unemployment hearing that decides the case, and that guide also sets out the three 45-calendar-day appeal deadlines. This page does not repeat them.
One rule in subdivision 2 is worth naming here because it catches people who think they were fired: “An employee who has been notified that the employee will be discharged in the future, who chooses to end the employment while employment in any capacity is still available, has quit the employment.” § 268.095, subd. 2(c). Leaving early, after being told the end is coming, converts a discharge into a quit — and then the way back to benefits is one of the ten exceptions above. Clause (6) is the one written for that situation, and it comes with its own arithmetic: an applicant who quits within 30 calendar days of a notified layoff date “is ineligible for unemployment benefits through the end of the week that includes the scheduled date of layoff,” and no longer.
What this page does not do
This page sets out the exceptions as the Legislature wrote them. It does not apply them, and applying them is the whole contest: whether the reason was “directly related to the employment,” whether an average reasonable worker would have quit rather than stayed, whether a complaint was made and what the employer did with it, whether a job was “unsuitable” on the day it started. Those are findings made on a record built at one telephone hearing, and chapter 268 requires that any legal conclusion producing ineligibility “be fully supported by the facts.” § 268.031, subd. 2.
Related: the unemployment hearing that decides the case, was my firing illegal, and the exit meeting.
Common questions
- Can you get unemployment in Minnesota if you quit?
- Sometimes, and the statute says so in the same sentence that disqualifies you. Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 1, provides that "[a]n applicant who quit employment is ineligible for all unemployment benefits according to subdivision 10 except when" one of ten listed circumstances applies. The list includes a good reason caused by the employer, quitting within 30 calendar days of starting unsuitable employment, a serious illness or injury that made quitting medically necessary, loss of child care after reasonable efforts and a request for accommodation, domestic abuse or sexual assault or stalking, and relocating with a military spouse. A quit outside the list disqualifies.
- What is a "good reason caused by the employer" for quitting in Minnesota?
- Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 3(a), defines it as 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." All three. Paragraph (g) closes the definition: "The definition of a good reason caused by the employer for quitting employment provided by this subdivision is exclusive and no other definition applies." And paragraph (c) adds a step most applicants skip — where the applicant was subjected to adverse working conditions, "the applicant must complain to the employer and give the employer a reasonable opportunity to correct the adverse working conditions before that may be a good reason caused by the employer for quitting."
- Can I quit for a better job and still collect unemployment in Minnesota?
- The exception is narrower than the phrase suggests. Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 1(2), applies where the applicant "quit the employment to accept other covered employment that provided equal to or better terms and conditions of employment, but the applicant did not work long enough at the second employment to have sufficient subsequent wages paid to satisfy the period of ineligibility that would otherwise be imposed under subdivision 10 for quitting the first employment." It is written for the situation where the better job also ends before you have requalified. The second job has to be covered employment and its terms have to be equal to or better than the first.
- How long does a quit disqualification last in Minnesota?
- Until you earn your way out of it. Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 10(a), provides that ineligibility under subdivisions 1 and 4 "is for the duration of the applicant's unemployment and until the end of the calendar week that the applicant had total wages paid for actual work performed in subsequent covered employment sufficient to meet one-half of the requirements of section 268.07, subdivision 2, paragraph (a)." It is not a fixed number of weeks. Under subd. 10(b), the ineligibility "begins on the Sunday of the week that the applicant became separated from employment."
- I gave two weeks' notice and they walked me out. Did I quit?
- Both, in sequence, and the statute says so. Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 5(d), provides that an employee who gives notice of intention to quit "and is not allowed by the employer to work the entire notice period is discharged from the employment as of the date the employer will no longer allow the employee to work." The same paragraph adds that "[i]f the discharge occurs within 30 calendar days before the intended date of quitting, then, as of the intended date of quitting, the separation from employment is a quit from employment subject to subdivision 1." So the walk-out period is a discharge, and the intended quit date is a quit — which is when the ten exceptions in subdivision 1 start to matter.
Sources checked September 8, 2026. Citations independently verified against the primary source September 8, 2026.
- Minn. Stat. § 268.095 (ineligibility because of quit or discharge) — Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- Minn. Stat. § 268.035 (definitions; suitable employment; covered employment) — Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- Minn. Stat. § 268.031 (standard of proof; statutory interpretation and application) — Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- Minn. Stat. § 268.07 (benefit account requirements) — Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- Minn. Stat. § 268.085 (eligibility requirements) — Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes