What do you need to know to hire in North Dakota?
One of the lowest income taxes in the country, a federal $7.25 wage floor, and no state leave programme. Each North Dakota guide below takes one layer of state rule.
· North Dakota, United States guide
Illustration · Bismarck, North Dakota
North Dakota runs one of the lowest income taxes in the country: a 0% first bracket topping out at 2.5%. The unemployment-insurance schedule and the federal stack are where the real work sits.
The federal floor is identical to every other state: FLSA, FICA, FUTA and FMLA set the baseline. North Dakota adds the $7.25 wage floor and little else on the pay side, and no state leave programme at all.
Most employers budget for the $46,600 unemployment wage base and miss how high it sits against the rest of the country. This page is the map; each guide is the detail.
What do you need to know to hire in North Dakota?
North Dakota runs on the federal employment floor with one of the lightest income taxes in the country layered on top. The first bracket is taxed at 0%, the top rate is just 2.5%, the minimum wage stays at the federal $7.25, and there's no state overtime beyond the 40-hour federal week.
Where North Dakota gets specific is unemployment insurance and the graduated income-tax brackets. Each guide below takes one of those layers.
Sienna runs payroll for a 12-person team and just approved her first North Dakota hire. The federal stack she already knows still applies: Social Security at 6.2% each side to $184,500, FUTA, and FMLA once the company passes 50 employees. North Dakota layers its own unemployment tax and its own graduated income-tax withholding on top.
Start from the United States overview for the federal baseline. This page is the North Dakota-specific layer, and the guides below break it into the questions an employer actually asks before a first hire.
What does an employer actually pay in North Dakota?
The North Dakota-specific cost is unemployment insurance plus graduated income-tax withholding and the federal pass-through. The income tax is among the lowest in the country, and there's no state-mandated benefit beyond the federal floor.
Unemployment insurance runs on a $46,600 taxable wage base, high against the rest of the country. A new employer starts at 1%.
State income tax: graduated, a 0% first bracket topping at 2.5%, one of the lowest in the country. Minimum wage: the federal $7.25 an hour, with $4.86 cash for tipped roles. Overtime: time and a half after 40 hours a week, no daily rule.
Unemployment insurance: a $46,600 wage base, 1% for a new positive-rated employer. Final pay: by the next regular payday, with no fixed day count in statute. Leave: no state programme, federal FMLA only.
Sources: ND Office of State Tax Commissioner, individual income tax and US DOL state minimum wage.
The figures above are the headline. The detail, from withholding setup to the SUTA filing cadence, the tip credit, and the exempt-salary threshold, sits in the North Dakota tax and unemployment guide and the wage and overtime guide.
The North Dakota guides, one layer at a time
Three North Dakota guides are live, one per layer of state rule. Each answers the questions an employer asks before the first hire, with the statutory numbers pulled from the same North Dakota source set.
State income tax & unemployment insurance
The graduated brackets from 0% to 2.5%, the $46,600 SUTA wage base, the 1% new-employer rate, and the quarterly filing rhythm.
Wage, overtime & meal break law
The federal $7.25 floor, the 40-hour overtime week, the tip credit, and the meal-break rule for shifts over five hours.
Paid family & sick leave
No state programme, what federal FMLA covers at 50+ employees, and the pregnancy accommodation rules that still apply.
The North Dakota termination and worker-classification guides are the next two we're building. Need them sooner? Tell us and we'll move them up the queue.
How does North Dakota compare to its neighbours?
North Dakota runs one of the lowest income taxes in the region, but each neighbour breaks the pattern somewhere. The federal floor is identical; the state layer is not.
Cross a state line and the math changes. Minnesota runs a far heavier income tax and its own paid-leave programme. Montana sets a state minimum wage above the federal $7.25 floor North Dakota uses, and it is not an at-will state. South Dakota levies no income tax at all but indexes its minimum wage above the federal floor.
If you're hiring across the region, read each state's guides before you set payroll. The structure is the same everywhere; the income-tax brackets, the SUTA base, and the leave mandate are not.
How does Teamed hire in North Dakota for you?
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in North Dakota for from $599 per employee per month, with zero FX mark-up in any currency. Payroll, the unemployment registration, the graduated income-tax withholding, and the federal stack run on one platform.
There's no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Real HR and legal experts handle your North Dakota hires, from the first offer letter to a contested termination. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue, who knows the 0% bottom bracket and the $46,600 unemployment base. There's no setup fee and no exit fee, the platform tracks every federal trigger in real time, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll, and entity setup live on one platform. A North Dakota contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate from EOR to your own US entity without re-onboarding. Run the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips. EOR is the right model for a first North Dakota hire, until it isn't.
North Dakota reads as the easy state: one of the lowest income taxes in the country, a 0% first bracket, the federal wage floor, no state leave. The catch is a high unemployment base and the graduated withholding that still has to be set up right. These guides exist so the first North Dakota hire never becomes the first North Dakota filing.
North Dakota looks like the simple state to hire in. One of the lowest income taxes in the country, a 0% first bracket, the federal wage floor.
The simple part hides a high unemployment base at $46,600 and graduated withholding that still has to be set up right.
Read the right guide before the first hire, not after the first filing.
