Suitable Employment 430-05-40-05-10

(Revised 09/26/22 ML 3681)

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Employment will be considered suitable unless:

  1. The wage offered is less than the highest of the applicable Federal minimum wage, the applicable State minimum wage, or 80% of the Federal minimum wage if neither the Federal nor State minimum wage is applicable.
  2. The employment offered is on a piece-rate basis, and the average hourly yield the employee can reasonably be expected to earn is not less than the highest of the applicable Federal minimum wage, the applicable State minimum wage or 80% of the Federal minimum wage if neither the Federal nor State minimum wage is applicable.
  3. The household member, as a condition of employment or continuing employment is required to join, resign from, or refrain from joining any legitimate labor organization.
  4. The work offered is at a site subject to a strike or lockout at the time of the offer unless the strike has been enjoined under the Taft-Hartley Act, or unless an injunction has been issued under Section 10 of the Railway Labor Act.
  5. It fails to meet additional suitability criteria established by State agencies.

 

In addition, employment will be considered suitable unless the household member involved can demonstrate or the State agency otherwise becomes aware that:

 

  1. The degree of risk to health and safety is unreasonable.
  2. The individual is physically or mentally unable to work, as documented by medical evidence or by reliable information from other sources.
  3. The distance from their home to the place of employment is unreasonable considering the expected wage and the time and cost of commuting. Employment is not suitable if daily commuting time exceeds two hours per day, not including transporting a child to and from a child care facility. Nor will employment be considered suitable if the distance to the place of employment prohibits walking and neither public nor private transportation is available to transport the member to the jobsite. This applies to moves within state as well as from state to state.

 

Examples:

  1. A household moves from Moorhead, Minnesota to Fargo, North Dakota. The commuting time to the current job remains under 2 hours, but an individual quit this job to move. This is considered suitable employment and good cause would not be granted even though the household has moved from one state to another.
  2. A household moves from Fargo to Bismarck, North Dakota. The commuting time to the current job exceeds 2 hours daily and the individual quit this job to move. This is not considered suitable employment and good cause would be granted.

 

4. The working hours or nature of the employment interferes with the individual’s religious observances, convictions or beliefs.

 

Example:

A Seventh Day Adventist could refuse to work on Saturday.

 

5. The employment offered within the first 30 days of registration is not in the individual’s major filed of experience.