How to Hire Employees in West Virginia: The Complete Compliance Sequence
How to hire employees in West Virginia step by step: One Stop registration, unemployment account, I-9, IT-104, 14-day new hire report, workers comp.
The first time I helped a founder hire in West Virginia, we lost a week to a single assumption. He had hired in three other states, so he built his checklist around a 20-day new hire report. West Virginia gives you 14 days.
His new hire started on a Wednesday, the first payroll run landed 16 days later, and the report went out with the run. That is late, and it is late in a way no software warns you about if the software was configured for a different state.
West Virginia is not a hard state to hire in. It is a state with a handful of rules that catch employers who learned the job elsewhere: a shorter reporting window, a minimum wage that turns on how many people work at one location, mandatory workers compensation with no general small-employer escape hatch, a written pay notice due at hiring rather than at the first paycheck, and five neighboring states whose residents get a withholding exemption. Miss any one of them and the fix costs more than the original task.
This guide runs the sequence in the order the work actually happens, from the federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) through the ninetieth day. I built FirstHR because this kind of work fails on timing rather than knowledge, and timing is what software is good at. Every deadline below is sourced to the statute or the agency that enforces it.
- Sign the offer letter
- Sign the employee handbook
- Workplace Safety course
West Virginia Hiring at a Glance: Every Deadline in One Place
Ten tasks stand between you and a legally employed first hire, and each one has its own deadline. The table below is the whole sequence with the enforcing agency for each item, so you can see which deadlines run from the hire date and which run from the moment you become liable as an employer.
| When | Deadline | If you miss it | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Get a federal EIN | Before hiring | Before the first payroll run | No payroll, no state registration, no W-2 filing | IRS |
| Get a Business Registration Certificate through the One Stop Business Portal | Before hiring | Before doing business in the state | Operating unregistered, and no withholding account to remit to | WV Tax Division |
| Open an unemployment insurance account | Before first wages | Once you cross the liability test | Interest and penalties on unpaid contributions | WorkForce West Virginia |
| Complete Form I-9 | Day 1 to Day 3 | Section 1 by the first day, Section 2 by the end of the third business day | $288 to $2,861 per form | USCIS / ICE |
| Collect Form W-4 and Form WV/IT-104 | Before first paycheck | Before the first wage payment | Federal withholding as single or married filing separately with no other entries, plus correction work later | IRS / WV Tax Division |
| Give written notice of pay rate and payday | At hiring | At the time of hiring, in writing | Wage Payment and Collection Act exposure | WV Division of Labor |
| File the new hire report | Within 14 days | 14 days from the date of hire | Up to $25 per failure, up to $500 for conspiracy | WV New Hire Reporting Center |
| Put workers compensation coverage in force | Before Day 1 | Before the first employee starts work | Default notice, fines, and loss of coverage for owners | WV Offices of the Insurance Commissioner |
| Post federal and state labor notices | Before Day 1 | Before employees begin work | Citations from federal and state inspectors | DOL / WV Division of Labor |
| Run structured onboarding | Day 1 to Day 90 | Ongoing through the first 90 days | No fine, but early turnover concentrates in the first weeks | Internal |
Two of these trip up employers who have hired in other states. The written pay notice under Code section 21-5-9 is due at hiring, and the new hire report is due in 14 days rather than 20. Everything else is a familiar federal or state task with a West Virginia detail attached.
Step 1: Get Your Federal Employer Identification Number
Apply for a federal Employer Identification Number before anything else, because every later step asks for it. The EIN is the number the IRS uses to identify your business on payroll deposits, quarterly returns and W-2 filings, and the state registration application will not proceed without it. Apply at IRS.gov, at no cost, and the number is issued at the end of the session.
If you already have an EIN from forming the entity, you do not need another. If you have been running as a sole proprietor and filing under your Social Security number, you need one now. Payroll tax reporting cannot run on a personal Social Security number once you have employees, and the state new hire report asks specifically for your federal EIN, often written FEIN.
Step 2: Register the Business Through the One Stop Business Portal
West Virginia routes employer registration through a single online application at the One Stop Business Portal, business4.wv.gov, which reaches the West Virginia Tax Division, the Secretary of State where an entity filing is required, and WorkForce West Virginia in one pass. That means there is no separate agency-by-agency crawl: the portal is the intended front door.
The core output is the Business Registration Certificate, issued by the Tax Division. Every individual or entity doing business in the state has to hold one before operating, and the application is Form WV/BUS-APP.
The registration fee is $30 unless your entity qualifies for an exemption under Code section 11-12-3. The same application opens your employer withholding tax account, which is what you will use to remit state income tax withheld from wages.
Registering Before the Offer, Not After
The practical sequencing advice: complete the registration before the offer letter goes out, not after the person accepts. Account numbers can take a few days to issue, and both the first withholding deposit and the first quarterly wage report reference them. A founder who registers in the same week as the start date usually spends that week chasing numbers instead of onboarding.
Step 3: Open Your Unemployment Insurance Account with WorkForce West Virginia
WorkForce West Virginia administers unemployment insurance, and you become a liable employer after paying $1,500 or more in total gross wages in a calendar quarter, or after having at least one employee in twenty different weeks during a calendar year.
The twenty weeks do not have to be consecutive, and they do not have to involve the same person. Almost every business that hires a single full-time employee crosses the wage threshold inside the first quarter.
The One Stop application in Step 2 starts the account, so what is left here is the cost. The numbers that matter for budgeting are set out below. The taxable wage base is the part most often configured wrong, because it was a moving target until Senate Bill 841 fixed it at $9,500. The 2024 base was $9,521, so any reference table built before that change carries the wrong number.
| Item | West Virginia figure | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable wage base | $9,500 per employee | Fixed at $9,500 by Senate Bill 841 (2024) |
| New in-state employer rate | 2.7% | Holds for the first 36 months of liability |
| Out-of-state construction employer rate | 8.5% | Holds for the first 36 months of liability |
| Experienced employer range | 1.5% to 7.5% | Assigned on claims experience |
| Liability trigger | $1,500 in a quarter, or 20 weeks with an employee | Whichever comes first |
| Quarterly report due dates | Apr 30, Jul 31, Oct 31, Jan 31 | One month after each quarter closes |
Your state unemployment tax rate is an employer-paid cost, not a payroll deduction, and it is worth modeling before the offer. The starting rate holds for the first 36 months and claims experience assigns it after that, so a single contested separation in year one can still raise the rate for years afterward, which is one more reason to document performance conversations from the start.
Step 4: Verify Employment Eligibility with Form I-9
Every employee hired in the United States completes Form I-9, and the two halves have different deadlines. Section 1 is the employee attestation and is due no later than the first day of work. Section 2 is yours, and it is due by the end of the third business day after work begins.
In Section 2 you examine original documents that establish identity and work authorization, then record what you saw. You examine them in the employee's physical presence or, if you are an E-Verify employer in good standing, over live video under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alternative procedure.
You do not get to specify which documents the person presents. Asking for a particular document, or for more documents than the list requires, is an unfair documentary practice under federal law when it is done to discriminate. The acceptable I-9 documentation lists are printed on the form.
Civil penalties for paperwork and substantive violations run from $288 to $2,861 per form under the inflation-adjusted schedule published in the Federal Register on January 2, 2025. The fine attaches per employee, not per audit, so a small filing habit repeated across a year of hiring compounds quickly.
Retention and Audit Readiness
The retention math trips people up because it is a comparison, not a fixed term. For someone who works four years, the controlling date is one year after termination. For someone who works four months, it is three years from hire.
E-Verify in West Virginia
E-Verify is not mandated for private employers in the state. Article 21-1B of the West Virginia Code makes it unlawful to knowingly employ an unauthorized worker and requires verification of legal status or work authorization before employment, but it permits document-based verification rather than requiring the federal system.
Senate Bill 522 in the 2026 regular session, the West Virginia Jobs Protection Act, proposed a statewide E-Verify mandate effective July 1, 2026. It was introduced on January 20, 2026, referred to Senate Government Organization, and did not move out of committee. The I-9 obligation is unaffected either way.
Step 5: Collect Form W-4 and West Virginia Form IT-104
West Virginia has a state income tax, which means two withholding certificates rather than one. The employee completes federal Form W-4 and West Virginia Form WV/IT-104, the state Employee Withholding Exemption Certificate, before the first paycheck. Collecting only the W-4 leaves state withholding unconfigured, and fixing it later means correction work rather than a quick fix.
State withholding rates were cut by Senate Bill 392, signed on March 31, 2026. The schedule runs five brackets from 2.11 to 4.58 percent, effective June 12, 2026 and retroactive to January 1 of that year. If you are configuring West Virginia payroll for the first time, verify that your provider loaded the revised tables rather than assuming it.
The Five Reciprocity States
West Virginia shares a border with five states and holds a reciprocity agreement with all of them. A resident of Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Virginia whose only West Virginia source income is wages or salary is exempt from West Virginia personal income tax withholding.
The exemption is not automatic: the employee still files Form WV/IT-104 and claims it there, and you keep the form on file as your authority for not withholding.
The table below lists the paperwork from Steps 4 through 6, plus direct deposit and the handbook acknowledgment, with who completes each item and by when.
| Form | Who completes it | Deadline | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form I-9 Section 1 | Employee | By the first day of work | Attestation of identity and work authorization |
| Form I-9 Section 2 | Employer | End of the third business day | Document examination and record |
| Federal Form W-4 | Employee | Before the first paycheck | Federal income tax withholding |
| Form WV/IT-104 | Employee | Before the first paycheck | State withholding and reciprocity exemption |
| Written pay notice | Employer | At the time of hiring | Rate of pay, day, hour and place of payment |
| Direct deposit authorization | Employee | Before the first paycheck | Payment method, where offered |
| Handbook acknowledgment | Employee | First week | Policy receipt, recommended not required |
Everything in that table except Section 2 of the I-9 can be collected with e-signature before the start date. That is the whole argument for handling new hire paperwork digitally: the first day gets spent on the work rather than on a clipboard.
Step 6: Give the Written Pay Notice Required at Hiring
West Virginia Code section 21-5-9 requires employers to notify employees in writing, at the time of hiring, of the rate of pay and of the day, hour and place of payment. This is a distinct statutory duty, and it is the step most often missed by employers who expect pay terms to show up first on a pay stub.
The same section carries three related obligations. You make employment practices and policies on vacation pay, sick leave and comparable matters available in writing or through a posted notice accessible to employees. You furnish each employee with an itemized statement of deductions for every pay period in which deductions are made. And you give written or posted notice of any change to pay arrangements before the change takes effect.
The efficient way to satisfy all of this is a signed offer letter that states the rate, the pay frequency, the payday and hour, and the place of payment, paired with an employee handbook covering leave and vacation policy. One document, one acknowledgment, statutory duty discharged, and a written record that settles any later dispute about what was agreed.
Pay frequency itself is set by Code section 21-5-3: settle with employees at least twice every month, with no more than 19 days between settlements, absent a special agreement. That is stricter than a semi-monthly schedule implies, because paydays on the 1st and the 25th would put 24 days between the two settlements within each month.
If your offer letter is a template you cannot easily change, use a separate one-page notice instead and have it signed alongside the offer. The version below is organized around the four things the statute names, plus the three related duties in the same section that employers usually discover later.
Step 7: File the New Hire Report Within Fourteen Days
West Virginia Code section 48-18-125 requires employers to report every new hire, rehire or return to work within 14 days. Most states allow 20, and the 20-day figure appears in a great deal of national compliance material, which is exactly why this deadline gets missed by employers who have hired elsewhere. Reports go to the West Virginia New Hire Reporting Center, electronically or on paper.
The timing conflict is the real risk. A person hired on the 20th of a month with a payroll run on the 5th has a report due before payroll ever touches their record. If your provider triggers new hire reporting from the payroll run rather than from the hire event, it will miss the West Virginia window on a predictable share of your hires. Ask when the filing fires, not whether it happens.
Step 8: Put Workers Compensation Coverage in Force
Workers compensation is mandatory in West Virginia and there is no general small-employer exemption. Every employer must maintain coverage under Chapter 23 of the Code, and the Employer Coverage Unit at the West Virginia Offices of the Insurance Commissioner enforces it, verifies coverage with other state agencies, and assesses fines against noncompliant employers.
The exemptions in rule 85-8-4 are narrow and do not scale with company size. They cover domestic service, agricultural services employers with five or fewer full-time employees, casual employers, churches, organized professional sports, volunteer rescue squads and police auxiliaries, and employers whose workers are covered by the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act. Sole proprietors and independent contractors are not required to carry coverage for themselves.
Coverage is purchased from private insurance carriers. Get the policy bound before the first day of work rather than during the first week, and check the effective date on the binder against the start date. An employee who is injured in a gap between hire and policy inception is a problem with no clean solution.
In West Virginia the practical planning point is simply that the coverage decision is not a decision. It is a precondition for the first day of work.
Step 9: Post the Required Federal and State Notices
Federal and state law both require you to display specific notices where employees can read them during working hours. The state set comes from the West Virginia Division of Labor, WorkForce West Virginia, the Human Rights Commission and your own workers compensation carrier. All of the government versions are free downloads.
| Notice | Source | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Wage Requirements | WV Division of Labor | All employers |
| Wage Payment and Collection Act | WV Division of Labor | All employers |
| Unemployment benefits notice | WorkForce West Virginia | All covered employers |
| Human Rights Act notice | WV Human Rights Commission | Employers within the Act |
| Workers compensation notice | Your insurance carrier | All covered employers |
| Nurses Overtime and Patient Safety Act | WV Division of Labor | Hospitals only |
| Federal minimum wage (FLSA) | dol.gov | All employers |
| OSHA job safety and health | osha.gov | All employers |
| Equal employment opportunity | eeoc.gov | Employers within Title VII |
| Employee Polygraph Protection Act and USERRA | dol.gov | All employers |
Two notes on this list. The West Virginia Parental Leave Act notice applies to state government agencies and county boards of education, not to private employers, so it is often included in commercial poster packs you do not need. And the workers compensation notice comes from your carrier rather than from a government site, which means it is the one poster you cannot download in advance.
Do not buy a poster subscription. Every required government notice on this list is published free by the issuing agency, and the only thing a paid pack adds is a reminder service you can replicate with a calendar entry.
Step 10: Onboard from Day 1 Through Day 90
Compliance gets someone legally on payroll; onboarding is what makes the hire worth the cost. According to research reported by SHRM (2017), up to 20 percent of employee turnover occurs within the first 45 days of employment, which makes those first weeks worth planning, yet most small employers treat them as administrative overhead.
| Timeline | What happens | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Before Day 1 | Signed offer letter with pay notice, I-9 Section 1, W-4, IT-104, direct deposit, handbook acknowledgment, workspace and access requested | Founder or manager |
| Day 1 | Welcome, introductions, tools and access, role expectations in writing. Complete I-9 Section 2 if not already done. | Founder or manager |
| Day 1 to Day 3 | Finish I-9 Section 2. Confirm workers compensation coverage is active. Start the new hire report. | Founder or manager |
| Within 14 days | File the new hire report. Verify first payroll configuration including state withholding and any city service fee. | Founder or payroll |
| Week 1 | Role-specific training, buddy assigned, first manager check-in, written 30-day goals | Manager |
| Day 30 | First formal check-in. Review the 30-day goals, identify gaps, adjust the plan. | Manager |
| Day 60 | Second check-in. The person should be contributing without close supervision. | Manager |
| Day 90 | Formal review. Transition from onboarding to ongoing performance management. | Manager |
This is the part I built FirstHR for. The offer letter goes out with e-signature and carries the written pay notice the statute requires. Form I-9, W-4, IT-104, and direct deposit forms go on the first-day list of each new hire as tasks, and completed forms are kept in their employee file. The I-9 itself is completed outside the platform.
Tasks carry due dates, so the fourteen-day report can sit on that list instead of depending on memory, and the AI onboarding wizard generates a 30-60-90 day plan from the job description. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, at flat, predictable pricing.
West Virginia Rules That Change How You Hire
Beyond the sequence, a handful of state rules shape the offer itself, the handbook and the first termination. These are the ones that differ enough from the national default to be worth reading before you write a job description.
The Minimum Wage Rule Nobody Expects
The state minimum wage is $8.75 per hour and has been unchanged since January 1, 2016. It carries no indexing mechanism, so it moves only by legislation. What makes it unusual is coverage. Under Code section 21-5C-1(e), the state wage law reaches only employers with six or more people employed during a workweek at any one separate, distinct and permanent location or business establishment.
That count is per location, not per company. A business with several small sites can be under the state rule at some and over it at others, and the answer changes the moment a sixth person is scheduled at a single site. Below the threshold, the federal minimum of $7.25 generally applies instead.
The West Virginia Division of Labor also notes that state overtime requirements do not apply where 80 percent or more of the workforce at a given employer is subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which is most employers. The tipped cash wage is $2.62, built on a 70 percent tip credit.
| Topic | West Virginia rule | Statute or source |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum wage | $8.75, at six or more per location | Code 21-5C-1(e) |
| Tipped cash wage | $2.62, 70 percent tip credit | WV Division of Labor |
| Pay frequency | At least twice a month, no more than 19 days apart | Code 21-5-3 |
| Final pay, quit or discharge | On or before the next regular payday | Code 21-5-4 |
| Pay notice at hiring | Written, rate plus day, hour and place of payment | Code 21-5-9 |
| Meal break | At least 20 minutes in a shift of six or more hours | Code 21-3-10a |
| Discrimination law threshold | Twelve or more employees, twenty or more calendar weeks | WV Human Rights Act |
| New hire reporting | 14 days from hire | Code 48-18-125 |
| Drug and alcohol testing | Lawful with written policy and procedure | Code Article 21-3E |
Two more rules matter at hiring. The West Virginia Human Rights Act reaches employers of twelve or more people in the state for twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, and complaints go to the Human Rights Commission within 365 days.
The Safer Workplaces Act, effective July 7, 2017, expressly makes it lawful to test applicants and employees for drugs and alcohol as a condition of hiring or continued employment, provided you implement the written policy, notice and procedural requirements in Article 21-3E first. Testing without that policy in place is where employers get into trouble, not the testing itself.
Nick Anisimov, FirstHR founderCity Rules: The Service Fee Is the One That Hits Payroll
No West Virginia municipality sets its own minimum wage or paid sick leave mandate, so the local layer here does not change your wage floor. What it does change is withholding. Several cities charge a flat weekly city service fee on people who work inside city limits, and the employer is the withholding agent.
| City | Local requirement | Employer obligation |
|---|---|---|
| Charleston | Flat weekly city service fee on people working in the city, including from home | Withhold each pay period, remit quarterly to the City Collector |
| Huntington | $5.00 per week city service fee, including remote workers inside city limits | Withhold each pay period, remit monthly, quarterly or annually, reconcile at year end |
| Wheeling and others | Similar flat municipal fees where adopted | Confirm the current amount with the city finance office before the first run |
| Charleston and Morgantown | Local non-discrimination ordinances adding protected classes beyond state law | Align the handbook and interview process with the broader local list |
| Statewide | No local minimum wage or paid sick leave ordinance | No city adds its own wage floor on top of the state or federal minimum |
The service fee catches employers twice. First, it applies based on where the work is performed, which includes someone working from a home inside city limits, as Charleston's fee guidance spells out, so a fully remote hire can trigger it. Second, the amounts are set by ordinance and change without a statewide announcement, so verify the current figure with the city finance office rather than with a payroll setup guide.
On the non-discrimination side, municipalities including Charleston and Morgantown have adopted ordinances covering classes the state statute does not list. If you hire across multiple towns, write the handbook to the broadest local standard rather than maintaining a different policy per site. There is also no statewide fair chance hiring law binding private employers.
Employee or Independent Contractor: The Classification Trap
Misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor is the most expensive avoidable error in this whole sequence, and West Virginia gives it a sharp edge. Because workers compensation is mandatory with no general small-employer exemption, a misclassified worker who gets hurt is an uninsured claim against a business that believed it had no coverage obligation at all.
The classification question turns on control. The IRS common-law test asks whether you direct how the work gets done or only what result is delivered. The factors below are the ones that decide most real cases at small employers.
| Question | Points to employee | Points to contractor |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the working hours? | You do | The worker does |
| Who supplies tools and equipment? | You do | The worker does |
| Can the worker lose money on the job? | No, the wage is fixed | Yes, they carry financial risk |
| How long does the relationship run? | Indefinite and continuous | Project-based, ends at completion |
| Can the worker serve other clients? | No, or restricted | Yes, freely |
| Who decides the method of work? | You dictate the process | The worker chooses the method |
| Is the work core to your business? | Yes, it is what you sell | No, it is a specialized service |
West Virginia also has its own Employment Law Worker Classification Act, in force since June 9, 2021, which governs workers compensation, unemployment, wage payment, and Human Rights Act claims. A contractor under it needs a signed written contract, a business or self-employment tax filing (or a business entity to work through), control over how the work is done, and at least three of nine further criteria. Anyone who falls short is judged under the IRS test.
Another detail specific to this state: properly classified contractors still get reported. Once payments for services reach $2,500 or more per year, the contractor becomes reportable to the new hire reporting center within 14 days of first making payments that reach that aggregate. Employers who think of new hire reporting as a payroll function tend to miss this entirely, because the contractor never appears in payroll. The safe default when the answer is genuinely unclear is a W-2 hire.
Classification also interacts with wage and hour law. A worker you classify as an employee still has to be correctly sorted as exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA before you decide whether overtime applies. Getting classification right and exemption wrong produces the same back-pay math.
The Mistakes That Cost West Virginia Employers the Most
These are the failures I see repeatedly, and every one of them is a timing or assumption error rather than a gap in knowledge. The employer knew the I-9 was required. They just did not finish it by the third business day.
The common thread is that compliance at a small business fails when the founder is busy, not when the founder is uninformed. That is why the fix is almost never more reading: it is a task with a date attached, owned by someone, firing automatically from the hire event rather than from the payroll calendar.
Nick Anisimov, FirstHR founder
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I register as an employer in West Virginia?
Use the One Stop Business Portal at business4.wv.gov. One application is routed to the West Virginia Tax Division, to the Secretary of State when your entity needs a state filing, and to WorkForce West Virginia, so you finish with a Business Registration Certificate, a withholding tax account and an unemployment insurance account. The Tax Division issues the certificate on Form WV/BUS-APP, and the fee is $30 unless your entity is exempt. Register before your first hire rather than after: the withholding account number is what lets you make your first deposit, and the unemployment account number is what lets you file your first quarterly wage report.
How many days do I have to report a new hire in West Virginia?
Fourteen days from the date of hire, under West Virginia Code section 48-18-125. Most states give you 20, and the longer figure shows up in plenty of national compliance material, so a process copied from another state will file late here. File with the West Virginia New Hire Reporting Center, giving your business name, address and FEIN along with the employee name, address, Social Security number and date of hire, and add the state of hire if you operate in more than one state. Independent contractors count too: you report them once what you pay for their services reaches $2,500 or more in a year. The penalty is up to $25 per failure, and up to $500 when employer and employee conspired to skip the report or file a false one.
What is the West Virginia minimum wage and is it indexed?
The minimum wage in West Virginia is $8.75 per hour, and nothing indexes it. It has stayed at that level since January 1, 2016, and changes only when the Legislature amends the statute. Coverage is where employers get caught. Code section 21-5C-1(e) applies the state rate only to an employer with six or more people employed during a workweek at any one separate, distinct and permanent site, so the count is per site. At a site below that headcount, the federal $7.25 minimum generally governs instead, provided the business is covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The tipped cash wage is $2.62, reflecting a 70 percent tip credit, and the employer covers the difference whenever tips fall short.
Is workers compensation insurance required in West Virginia?
Yes. West Virginia treats workers compensation coverage as compulsory, and there is no general exemption for a small headcount. Chapter 23 of the West Virginia Code puts the duty on every employer. Rule 85-8-4 lists the narrow exceptions: churches, domestic service, casual employers, organized professional sports, agricultural operations with up to five full-time employees, volunteer rescue squads and police auxiliaries, and employers whose workers are covered by the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act. You buy the policy from a private carrier. Enforcement sits with the Employer Coverage Unit at the West Virginia Offices of the Insurance Commissioner, which issues default notices and assesses fines.
Do I have to register with WorkForce West Virginia for unemployment tax?
Yes, once you meet the liability test. You become liable when the gross wages you pay in a calendar quarter reach $1,500 or more in total, or when you have at least one employee during twenty different weeks of a calendar year. Those twenty weeks need not be consecutive, and the employee can be a different person each week. Most employers cross the wage line in their first quarter. The taxable wage base is $9,500 per employee. A new in-state employer starts at 2.7 percent and an out-of-state construction employer at 8.5 percent, and both rates stay fixed for the first 36 months, after which experienced employer rates of 1.5 to 7.5 percent apply. Quarterly reports are due one month after each quarter ends.
Which tax forms does a new employee in West Virginia complete?
Every new hire completes the federal W-4 and the West Virginia WV/IT-104, plus Form I-9 for employment eligibility. The IT-104 is the state withholding exemption certificate and stands apart from the federal W-4, so an employer that collects only the W-4 has not set up state withholding. Employees who live in Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Virginia whose only West Virginia income is wages are exempt from state withholding under reciprocity agreements. They still complete the IT-104, certifying their state of residence in its nonresident section, so the exemption is documented in your files. Senate Bill 392, signed March 31, 2026, cut withholding rates to a five-bracket schedule from 2.11 to 4.58 percent, effective June 12, 2026 and reaching back to January 1.
Does West Virginia require E-Verify for private employers?
No. West Virginia does not require private employers to use the federal E-Verify system. Article 21-1B of the state Code bars knowingly employing an unauthorized worker and requires you to check legal status or work authorization before hiring, but document-based checks satisfy it. A 2026 bill, Senate Bill 522, titled the West Virginia Jobs Protection Act, would have made E-Verify enrollment mandatory for every employer by July 1, 2026. It was introduced January 20, 2026 and sent to Senate Government Organization, where it never advanced. Form I-9 stays mandatory for every new hire whether or not you use E-Verify voluntarily.
When is the final paycheck due in West Virginia?
On or before the next regular payday on which the wages would otherwise have been due, whether the person quit, resigned or was discharged. That rule sits in Code section 21-5-4, part of the Wage Payment and Collection Act, and it applies the same way in both directions. Fringe benefits that are earned and payable on separation under a written policy normally count as final wages unless the policy specifically makes them payable later. An employer who pays late owes the wages plus liquidated damages of two times the unpaid amount, and attorney fees can follow. If the employer said in writing, at separation or with the final paycheck, where to send a written demand, the employee has to send one before claiming those extras. Section 21-5-4a then gives the employer seven calendar days to correct the shortfall. Miss that window and an unresolved dispute over a few hundred dollars of accrued vacation can become a much larger number.
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