North Dakota Private Employer Veteran Preference

Section 37-19.1-05 is one sentence long and does two things. A private, nonpublic employer in North Dakota may provide a preference to a veteran for employment, and spouses of honorably discharged veterans who have a service-connected permanent and total disability may also be preferred. The section then states that "this preference is not considered a violation of any state or local equal employment opportunity law". The spouse limb is worth noticing because most states with a private-employer preference statute cover only the veteran. North Dakota lets an employer prefer the spouse of a permanently and totally disabled veteran, which reaches the household where the veteran cannot work. This creates nothing a job applicant can claim. It is permission for the employer, and its practical use to a veteran is in the conversation: an employer who says a veteran preference policy would expose them to a discrimination claim can be pointed at the statute. Nothing in it touches federal equal employment law. The contrast with the public sector provision in the same chapter is stark and worth stating plainly, because the two are often reported together as "North Dakota veterans' preference". In public employment a qualified veteran must be hired absent written justifiable cause, with an appeal to a hearing officer and a remedy of the job plus backpay. In private employment nothing is required of anyone.