Utah Veterans Preference in Public Employment

Utah's public employment preference is wide in who it covers, modest in what it adds, and unusual in how it is enforced. Who is covered, and this is the striking part. Section 71A-2-101, subsection 1, paragraph (c) defines "preference eligible" as: "(i) any individual who is a veteran or service member; (ii) an individual with a disability, regardless of the percentage of disability; (iii) the spouse or surviving spouse of a veteran or service member; (iv) a purple heart recipient; or (v) a retired member of the armed forces." Five categories, and three of them are not veterans in the ordinary sense. A currently serving service member is preference eligible. The husband or wife of a currently serving service member is preference eligible. A military retiree is preference eligible in their own right under paragraph (v) whether or not they satisfy the general definition of veteran. This is the widest preference class in this catalog. "Individual with a disability" is defined in paragraph (b) as a veteran or service member "who has established the existence of a service-connected disability or is receiving compensation, disability retirement benefits, or a pension because of a public statute administered by the VA or a military department." Note the second limb: receiving a pension. VA pension is a needs-based wartime benefit with no service connection at all, so a veteran drawing VA pension and holding no rating is an individual with a disability for this chapter. And paragraph (c)(ii) says "regardless of the percentage of disability", so a 10 percent rating and a 100 percent rating get the same treatment here. Who must give it. Section 71A-2-102, subsection 1: "Each government entity shall grant a veterans preference upon initial application to each preference eligible individual according to the procedures and requirements of this chapter." "Government entity" is defined in section 71A-2-101, subsection 1, paragraph (a) as the state and any county, municipality, special district, special service district, or other political subdivision or administrative unit, "including state institutions of education". So the University of Utah and every school district are inside it. The words "upon initial application" matter. This is a hiring preference, not a promotion preference. What it adds. Subsection 2 requires the personnel or human resource officer to add to the score of a preference eligible who receives a passing score on an examination, or on "any rating or ranking mechanism used in selecting an individual for any career service position": 5 percent of the total possible score for a veteran or service member. 10 percent of the total possible score for a veteran or service member with a disability, or a Purple Heart recipient. For a preference eligible spouse or surviving spouse, "the same percentage the qualifying veteran or service member is, or would have been, entitled to." Read "of the total possible score". The increment is a fixed fraction of the maximum, not a percentage of the score you achieved, so it is worth the same to a strong candidate and a marginal one. The preference applies only to someone who already passed. The spouse provision deserves a second look. A spouse gets the percentage the veteran "is, or would have been, entitled to". So the spouse of a veteran with a disability gets 10 percent, and the surviving spouse of a veteran who would have been entitled to 10 percent gets 10 percent, even though the spouse has no service of their own. Where there is no examination. Subsection 3: "A preference eligible who applies for a position that does not require an examination, or where examination results are other than a numeric score, shall be given preference in interviewing for the position." Most public hiring today has no numeric score, so for most jobs the operative entitlement is an interview. Subsection 4 is short and easy to overlook: "Preference eligibility shall be added to a minimum of one step in the process." Where a hiring process has several stages, the preference must be applied at least once. It does not say the preference must be applied at every stage. Subsection 5 is the safe harbour: granting the preference in accordance with the chapter "is not a violation of: (a) Title 34A, Chapter 5, Utah Antidiscrimination Act; or (b) any other state or local equal employment opportunity law." How it is enforced, and this is where Utah diverges sharply from its neighbours. Section 71A-2-103: "An officer, agent, or representative of a government entity who is charged with employment of people may not willfully fail to give preference as provided in this chapter," and "Willful failure to extend veterans preference to an applicant is a class B misdemeanor." A criminal penalty on the individual hiring officer. What the chapter does not contain is any civil remedy: no mandamus, no administrative appeal, no arbitration, no damages, no attorney fees, and no provision for reconsidering the appointment. Compare Iowa, whose chapter 35C gives a refused veteran a choice of mandamus within 300 days, a district court appeal within 20 days, or binding arbitration within 60 days, and separately forbids removing a veteran from a public position except for incompetency or misconduct after a hearing. Utah has the criminal charge and nothing else on the face of the chapter. The practical consequence is that a Utah veteran who believes the preference was ignored has to persuade a prosecutor, or raise it through the entity's own grievance process, or look outside chapter 71A entirely. Ask the hiring entity in writing whether it applied the preference and at which step, because subsection 4 makes that a question with a right answer. One neighbouring provision. Section 63A-17-301 lists the state positions that are exempt from career service. The preference in section 71A-2-102 is framed around "any career service position", so a schedule AA through AH exempt appointment sits outside the scoring mechanism, though subsection 3's interview preference is not limited to career service by its own words. A separate chapter governs private employers who choose to prefer veterans; see the Utah private employment preference entry.