To qualify for unemployment benefits in Minnesota, you must meet two basic requirements:
- you must have earned at least a minimum amount (and/or worked a certain amount of time) before you lost your job, and
- you must be out of work through no fault of your own.
If you meet these two qualifications when you apply, you will likely be eligible to receive unemployment benefits. (To keep receiving benefits after you are found eligible, you will also have to meet your state’s job search requirements; to learn more, see What Do I Have to Do to Keep Receiving Unemployment Benefits in Minnesota?)
Gig workers, freelancers, and contractors are no longer eligible for benefits. In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, Congress greatly expanded eligibility for unemployment. Among other things, these programs provided benefits to gig workers and other contract workers who are not eligible for traditional unemployment benefits. However, these programs expired in every state on September 6, 2021; about half the states cut off these benefits even earlier.
Eligibility Requirement 1: Minimum Earnings
Unemployment benefits are available only to those who are temporarily out of work. If you apply after being out of the workforce for years, for example, you won’t qualify for benefits. You must have been employed relatively recently, and earned at least a minimum amount, to be eligible.
States look at an applicant’s work history during a stretch of time called the “base period.” In Minnesota, the base period is dependent on when you apply for benefits. If you apply in the first month of a calendar quarter (that is, you apply in January, April, July, or October), the base period is the first four of the five complete calendar quarters immediately before you filed for benefits, unless you qualify for an alternate base period. However, if you apply in the second or third month of a calendar quarter, the base period is either the first four of the five complete calendar quarters immediately before you filed for benefits or the last four complete calendar quarters before you filed for benefits, whichever period included the highest wages. If your wages are the same in both, the last four complete calendar quarters are used as the base period. To be eligible for benefits in Minnesota, you must have earned at least 5.3% of the state's annual average wage during the base period. If you were out of work due to a serious illness or a temporary disability for which you received workers' compensation benefits during the base period, you may be entitled to an extended base period. This means the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Unemployment Insurance Program will count earlier earnings, if your earnings aren't sufficient to qualify you for benefits during the regular base period. Minnesota may extend the base period for up to four quarters before the regular base period. If you applied for benefits in the first month of a calendar quarter (January, April, July, or October), and you didn't earn enough during the first four of the last five complete quarters before you file, you may use an alternate base period that counts more recent earnings. In Minnesota, the alternate base period is the last four complete calendar quarters before you file.
Eligibility Requirement 2: Reasons for Unemployment
To qualify for unemployment benefits, you must be out of work through no fault of your own. If you lose your job in a layoff, reduction-in-force (RIF), downsizing, or similar job action in which positions are cut for financial or strategic reasons, you will be eligible for benefits.
However, you don’t have to be laid off to collect unemployment. You may still be eligible even if you quit your job or you were fired, depending on the circumstances.
If You Quit Your Job
In Minnesota, you will be disqualified from receiving benefits if you quit your last job voluntarily, without a good reason attributable to your employer. However, you may still be eligible if:
- You quit to take a better job.
- You were forced to quit due to your own serious illness or injury or to care for an ill or injured family member.
- You quit to relocate with your spouse.
- You quit due to domestic violence.
- You quit due to loss of child care.
- You quit after being notified that you would be laid off in the next 30 days.
- The job was unsuitable and you quit within the first 30 days.
- The job was unsuitable and you quit to enter a full-time reemployment assistance training program.
If You Were Fired
In Minnesota, you will not be eligible for benefits if you were fired for misconduct, defined as intentional or negligent conduct that clearly displays either:
- a substantial lack of concern for the job, or
- a serious violation of the standards of behavior the employer has a right to expect.
Examples of disqualifying misconduct include intoxication on the job, repeated unexecused absences, theft, or harassment. Examples of behavior that likely will not disqualify you from receiving benefits include inability to meet the job standards, ordinary errors or mistakes, or inefficiency.
You may be disqualified either for a set number of weeks or until you get another job and earn a minimum amount, depending on state law. In some states, the length of the disqualification period depends on why you were fired. You can learn more about disqualification based on the reason you were fired in the Minnesota Unemployment Information Handbook.If You Are Still Employed
If you are still working but need time off for reasons relating to COVID-19 or other health issues, you may be eligible for paid sick leave under your state's law. See Am I Entitled to Paid Sick Leave, Family Leave, or Vacation Time in Minnesota to learn more.