Boucher v. Maine Employment Security Commission: The Role of Acceptance in Employment Security Law

The Maine Employment Security Law was enacted in an attempt to limit the serious social consequences of unemployment and to insure individual workers against the distress of involuntary unemployment. Under the law, employees who leave work voluntarily without "good cause" are ineligible for unemployment compensation benefits. Until recently the Maine Supreme Judicial Court had not determined whether a substantial reduction in wages by an employer would constitute good cause to leave work under the "voluntary quit" provision of the law. In Boucher v. Maine Employment Security Commission, however, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, determined that under the "voluntary quit” provision of the law, a substantial reduction in wages did constitute good cause to leave work voluntarily. A review of the pertinent case law and policy considerations suggests that although the court would have been correct in establishing this precedent under other circumstances, the court misapplied the law to the facts in Boucher.