20 C.F.R. § 404.1573

General information about work activity

Read at: eCFRecfr.gov CornellLII GovInfogovinfo.gov CasesGoogle Scholar

(a) The nature of your work. If your duties require use of your experience, skills, supervision and responsibilities, or contribute substantially to the operation of a business, this tends to show that you have the ability to work at the substantial gainful activity level.

(b) How well you perform. We consider how well you do your work when we determine whether or not you are doing substantial gainful activity. If you do your work satisfactorily, this may show that you are working at the substantial gainful activity level. If you are unable, because of your impairments, to do ordinary or simple tasks satisfactorily without more supervision or assistance than is usually given other people doing similar work, this may show that you are not working at the substantial gainful activity level. If you are doing work that involves minimal duties that make little or no demands on you and that are of little or no use to your employer, or to the operation of a business if you are self-employed, this does not show that you are working at the substantial gainful activity level.

(c) If your work is done under special conditions. The work you are doing may be done under special conditions that take into account your impairment, such as work done in a sheltered workshop or as a patient in a hospital. If your work is done under special conditions, we may find that it does not show that you have the ability to do substantial gainful activity. Also, if you are forced to stop or reduce your work because of the removal of special conditions that were related to your impairment and essential to your work, we may find that your work does not show that you are able to do substantial gainful activity. However, work done under special conditions may show that you have the necessary skills and ability to work at the substantial gainful activity level. Examples of the special conditions that may relate to your impairment include, but are not limited to, situations in which—

(1) You required and received special assistance from other employees in performing your work;

(2) You were allowed to work irregular hours or take frequent rest periods;

(3) You were provided with special equipment or were assigned work especially suited to your impairment;

(4) You were able to work only because of specially arranged circumstances, for example, other persons helped you prepare for or get to and from your work;

(5) You were permitted to work at a lower standard of productivity or efficiency than other employees; or

(6) You were given the opportunity to work despite your impairment because of family relationship, past association with your employer, or your employer's concern for your welfare.

(d) If you are self-employed. Supervisory, managerial, advisory or other significant personal services that you perform as a self-employed individual may show that you are able to do substantial gainful activity.

(e) Time spent in work. While the time you spend in work is important, we will not decide whether or not you are doing substantial gainful activity only on that basis. We will still evaluate the work to decide whether it is substantial and gainful regardless of whether you spend more time or less time at the job than workers who are not impaired and who are doing similar work as a regular means of their livelihood.

[45 FR 55584, Aug. 20, 1980, as amended at 65 FR 42783, July 11, 2000]

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 130 cases (50 in the last 5 years), 1981–2026 · leading case: Bradley Cardew v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec.

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Bradley Cardew v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. (2018) ca6 · cites it 5× “2d at 1056 , among other considerations and special conditions, see 20 C.F.R. § 404.1573 (b)-(c) ; see also id.”

Bradley Lewis v. Kenneth S. Apfel, Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (2001) ca9 · cites it 3× “20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1573 & 416.973. See Katz v.”

Moran v. Astrue (2009) ca2 “” See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1573 (c) & 416.973(c). The ALJ never asked Moran about the work that he performed at the orchard so as to develop a record that might have supported a claim of the presence of such “special conditions” in these circumstances.”

Alvarado v. Colvin (2016) ca7 “See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1573 (c)(6) (claimant’s work activities can be considered even if he was only given the opportunity to work due to a family relationship).”

David Lee BOYES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Defendant-Appellee (1994) ca6 · cites it 2× “Work done under special conditions is addressed in 20 C.F.R. § 404.1573 (c), which provides that even work done in a sheltered workshop may show a claimant possesses “the necessary skills and ability to work at the substantial gainful activity level.”

Ronald M. TYRA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES, Defendant-Appellee (1990) ca6 · cites it 2× “20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1573 , 404.-1574 (1989).”

Heather Browning v. Carolyn Colvin (2014) ca7 “See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1573 (c). The regulation explains that work done in sheltered employment “may show that you have the necessary skills and ability to work at the substantial gainful activity level,” but a person capable of working only in sheltered employment is deemed…”

WRIGHT, Joya, Appellant, v. SULLIVAN, Louis, Secretary of Health and Human Services (1990) ca3 “20 C.F.R. § 404.1573 (e) (1989). Of course, Wright spent the same time on the job as the other counselors.”

Alice HALVORSEN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Margaret M. HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant-Appellee (1984) ca7 “If you do your work satisfactorily, this may show that you are working at the substantial gainful activity level.”

Berry v. Sullivan (1990) pawd “While meeting the income level creates a presumption, it is a presumption which can be rebutted by evidence of the nature of the applicant’s work, the conditions of employment and the adequacy of the applicant’s performance.”

Rebecca Ladd v. Itt Corporation and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1998) ca7 “See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1573 (e), 404.1574(a), (b).”

Acosta v. Astrue (2012) txwd “9-10 (citing 20 C.F.R. § 404.1573 (c)). Other evidence in the record, however, shows that she held at least one other job during the period of purported disability.”

Show all 130 citing cases →

— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1573(a) — 1 case

Wancevich v. Heckler (1986) njd

— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1573(b) — 3 cases

Gower v. Apfel (2001) ca6

Everett M. Long v. Donna E. Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services (1993) ca10

Wancevich v. Heckler (1986) njd

— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1573(c) — 4 cases

Janeway v. Secretary of Health and Human Services (1988) cacd

Grigalonas v. O'Malley (2024) ilnd

Cynthia Marie Hernandez v. Kilolo Kijakazi (2023) txwd

Alexa Jean M. v. Commissioner of Social Security (2026) nynd

— 20 C.F.R. § 404.1573(c)(6) — 1 case

James S. v. Saul (2019) rid

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.