North Dakota PEO Laws: Registration, Bonding and Payroll Requirements
North Dakota licenses every PEO through the Secretary of State under NDCC 43-55 — even one with a single employee — posting a surety bond or letter of credit of $100,000 or 5% of quarterly wages, a $1,000 license fee, and annual renewal. SUI is charged on the first $46,600 of wages at a roughly 1% new employer rate, and WSI is the exclusive workers' compensation provider.
| PEO registration or licensing required | Yes — PEO license from the Secretary of State source (opens in new window) |
|---|---|
| Regulating agency | North Dakota Office of the Secretary of State (NDCC 43-55); Job Service North Dakota for SUI source (opens in new window) |
| Bond or security requirement | Surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit equal to the lesser of $100,000 or 5% of reported quarterly wages ($100,000 flat if no wage report on file) source (opens in new window) |
| Registration renewal cycle | Annual — licenses valid for 1 year, renewable within 60 days before expiration; $1,000 fee each time source (opens in new window) |
| SUI taxable wage base | $46,600 (2026, up from $45,100 in 2025) source (opens in new window) |
| New-employer SUI rate | 1% (2026 planning default; up to 6.07% on the negative-balance schedule) source (opens in new window) |
| State workers' comp fund | Exclusive state fund — Workforce Safety & Insurance (WSI) is the state-monopoly provider of workers' compensation source (opens in new window) |
| State paid leave mandate | Not verified |
| State minimum wage | $7.25 (federal rate applies in North Dakota) source (opens in new window) |
| PEO SUI reporting basis | Client-level — each PEO must carry a quarterly contribution and wage report from Job Service North Dakota in its licensing file, and renewals require the same report source (opens in new window) |
Sources
- ND Secretary of State — anyone providing PEO services must be licensed under NDCC 43-55, even with one employee — verified 2026-08-12
- ND Secretary of State — Office of the Secretary of State licenses PEOs (NDCC 43-55) — verified 2026-08-12
- ND SoS — bond or irrevocable letter of credit: lesser of $100,000 or 5% of quarterly wages; $100,000 flat with no report on file — verified 2026-08-12
- ND SoS — licenses valid 1 year, renewed within 60 days before expiration; $1,000 fee — verified 2026-08-12
- EY — 2026 SUI taxable wage bases: North Dakota $46,600 (up from $45,100) — verified 2026-08-12
- HiringMath (US DOL Jan 2026 data) — North Dakota new employer rate 1%, construction differs — verified 2026-08-12
- HiringMath — North Dakota: state-monopoly workers comp (WSI) — verified 2026-08-12
- U.S. DOL state minimum wage table (updated July 1, 2026) — North Dakota $7.25 — verified 2026-08-12
- ND SoS — quarterly contribution and wage report required with application and renewal — verified 2026-08-12
What we know about North Dakota
North Dakota takes a hard line on PEO licensing: anyone providing professional employer services must be licensed through the Office of the Secretary of State, even if the PEO has just one employee in the state. The program runs under NDCC chapter 43-55 and comes with teeth — the Secretary of State will not issue a license without a surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit, and if the bond lapses, the license is revoked the following day and can only be restored through a whole new application plus another $1,000 fee.
The bond is calibrated to the PEO's own payroll. The required minimum is the lesser of $100,000 or 5 percent of total wages reported on the PEO's most recent quarterly contribution and wage report filed with Job Service North Dakota; a PEO with no report on file posts the flat $100,000. That design ties financial security directly to scale, so a growing PEO's coverage requirement grows with its wage base rather than jumping to a fixed ceiling. The license itself costs $1,000, is valid for one year, and must be renewed within 60 days before expiration, with the same bond and quarterly report requirements reapplied. The 60-day window means the paperwork — bond certificate, quarterly wage report, renewal fee — has to be assembled ahead of the expiration date, because a lapse triggers the full re-application route: the license is revoked the following day and can only be restored with a whole new application and another $1,000 fee.
On the unemployment side North Dakota keeps client-level reporting: the quarterly contribution and wage report that anchors the licensing file is the same document the PEO submits to Job Service for its workforce, so one filing feeds both the license and the UI account. The 2026 taxable wage base is $46,600, and the new employer rate is roughly 1 percent, with negative-balance schedules running as high as 6.07 percent. Workers' compensation is another signature feature: Workforce Safety & Insurance is the exclusive, state-monopoly provider, so there is no private-carrier market to shop, and the comp line sits outside a rate-shopping conversation entirely. The minimum wage is the federal floor of $7.25.
For a PEO, North Dakota is one of the few states where the licensing file and the unemployment reporting file are the same documents — the quarterly wage report literally travels to both the Secretary of State and Job Service. That symmetry cuts both ways: the report the PEO files for its workforce is also the document that calibrates its bond, so the lesser-of formula keeps the security requirement in step with the wages actually reported, and the flat $100,000 floor applies until a report on file puts scale behind the calculation.
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