Wyoming Payroll: Employer Tax and Software Guide

Wyoming is the state people point at when they want to argue that payroll can be simple. If another founder asked me where payroll is easiest, I would name Wyoming too, then warn them about workers compensation. This guide covers what Wyoming requires, what the unemployment and workers compensation layer costs, and how 10 payroll providers price the work at 10, 25, and 50 employees.

The simple part is real. No income tax on wages. No local income tax. No city occupational tax, no paid family leave premium, no state disability program, no state withholding certificate to chase during onboarding. On paper the entire state tax layer is one program.

It is two, and the second one surprises people. Workers compensation here is not something you shop for. For covered industries the state is the only seller, and your classification comes from your North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. Premium is calculated on reported payroll, and the report can be due monthly rather than quarterly.

Tips count as wages for one program and are excluded from the other, on the same form. The withholding half of payroll almost disappears here. The reporting half does not.

What Wyoming requires from employers

Wyoming employers answer to two state programs, unemployment insurance and workers compensation, with one registration covering both and a set of wage payment rules that vary by industry. There is no third agency and no municipal layer.

No state income tax, and what that does not remove

Wyoming imposes no individual income tax and no corporate income tax. The Wyoming Legislature's own summary of the statutory tax structure lists both at zero percent with zero collections, noting Article 15, Section 18 of the state constitution. The state funds itself from severance, sales, use, and property taxes instead, which is why a payroll department here never opens a state withholding account.

Without an income tax, four things drop out of payroll: a state withholding registration, a state certificate collected alongside the federal Form W-4, a periodic state deposit, and a state annual reconciliation. Nothing else does.

Federal withholding still runs off the W-4, and Social Security and Medicare still come out of every check with a matching employer share. According to the IRS, federal unemployment tax still applies at 6.0 percent on the first $7,000 of wages, reduced by a credit of up to 5.4 percent where state contributions are paid on time.

Unemployment insurance contributions

Unemployment insurance is an employer-only cost in Wyoming, and section 27-3-503(a) of the Wyoming Statutes (W.S.) states directly that contributions may not be deducted from employee wages. According to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, the taxable wage base is $34,900 from January 1, 2027 ($33,800 for 2026). The department publishes each base a year in advance.

The base has risen every year for a decade, which makes it one of the few Wyoming payroll numbers that change on a schedule. For a 25-person payroll where every employee earns at least the new ceiling, that adds $27,500 of taxable wages in 2027 compared with 2026, before any rate change.

The Department of Workforce Services assigns rates under W.S. 27-3 Article 5 as a base rate plus four adjustment factors, and the base rate is built differently depending on how long you have been an employer here.

The federal compilation of state unemployment laws effective January 2026 shows Wyoming assigned rates running from 0.10 percent to 8.50 percent, with the new employer rate expressed as the industry average.

The same compilation shows that Wyoming applies no payroll-size threshold. Most states make an employer liable only after it pays a set amount in wages or employs someone for a set number of weeks. Wyoming makes an employer liable at any size.

Contribution reports are due on the last day of the month after each quarter ends: April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31, according to the department's reporting calendar. A due date that falls on a weekend or holiday moves to the next business day.

Workers compensation as a payroll line, not an insurance policy

Workers compensation is the part of Wyoming employment compliance that behaves least like the rest of the country. W.S. 27-14-108 defines extrahazardous employment, the work that must carry coverage, by NAICS code and sweeps in whole sectors such as mining, utilities, construction, and manufacturing, plus listed industries such as logging. Every worker in a covered business is covered regardless of individual occupation.

The Department of Workforce Services states that the only place to get required coverage is the state Workers Compensation Division. There is no private market for a required policy. If you are used to buying workers compensation insurance from a broker, this is a different purchase.

Employers outside those classifications may elect optional coverage, which binds for two years under W.S. 27-14-108(j). It also brings the exclusive remedy protection in W.S. 27-14-104. That protection generally means an injured employee claims workers compensation benefits instead of suing the employer.

The published schedule covers 127 classifications, from 0.05 for securities and commodity contracts to 7.13 for transit and ground passenger transportation, and every one of them fell against the prior year. The spread is the point: a contractor's purely clerical, physically separate front office can qualify for the clerical class, which costs roughly an eighth of the field class.

Your industry base rate is then modified by an experience rating built from three years of your own claims, on a split plan that weighs how often claims happen separately from how much they cost. Below 1.0 you pay less than your industry, above 1.0 more, and a new employer starts at 1.0.

Minimum wage, and why the state number rarely applies

Wyoming's statutory minimum wage is $5.15 per hour under W.S. 27-4-202, with a tipped cash wage of $2.13 and a youth rate of $4.25 for the first 90 consecutive days for employees under 20. According to the Department of Workforce Services, federal minimum wage rates apply to many positions, and in practice the federal $7.25 governs almost every employer here.

The statute carries an April 2001 effective date on those rates and does not index them to inflation, so there is nothing to reprice each January. Where an employer relies on the state tip credit, the arithmetic still has to clear: if cash wages plus tips fall short of the applicable minimum, the employer pays the difference. No Wyoming city sets its own floor.

Pay frequency, pay stubs, and final paychecks

W.S. 27-4-101 sets a semimonthly (twice-a-month) pay requirement, but only for railroads, mines, refineries, work incidental to prospecting for or producing oil and gas, and any other factory, mill, or workshop. Agricultural operations are exempt, and employers outside those categories have no statutory pay frequency requirement at all, as the Department of Workforce Services confirms.

The pay stub rule reaches every employer, whatever its pay frequency: each wage payment needs an itemized written statement of all deductions.

The final paycheck rule is simpler than in states such as California or Texas, which set a shorter clock for a discharge than for a resignation. Wyoming applies one deadline to both: the next regularly scheduled payday, as the Department of Workforce Services states plainly for workers.

Employers may offset sums the employee owes. Wages proven due in court carry 18 percent annual interest plus attorney fees, and willful violation is a misdemeanor.

Registration and new hire reporting

One application at the state employer portal opens both accounts in roughly one to two business days, and assigns the NAICS code that drives both the workers compensation classification and a new employer's unemployment base rate.

New hires are reported within 20 days under W.S. 27-1-115, though electronic filers may instead send two transmissions a month, 12 to 16 days apart. A rehire after a separation of at least 60 days counts as a new hire. The report may be made on the federal Form W-4, which is why new hire reporting breaks when the W-4 never gets collected.

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The local layer that state registration does not cover

Wyoming has no city or county payroll tax and no local income tax, so the layer that catches employers is not municipal. It is the workers compensation half of the same state registration, which runs on its own wage rules, its own calendar, and its own definition of payroll.

Two programs, one wage listing, three coverage codes

The state wage listing carries both programs at once, and every line needs a coverage type: B for both, U for unemployment only, W for workers compensation only.

Corporate officers, LLC members, and owners who elected coverage go in a separate section. There, workers compensation uses the statewide average wage rather than their actual pay, and their actual wages are reported for unemployment only.

Workers compensation reporting can be monthly

Workers compensation reporting is monthly by default. W.S. 27-14-202 makes the payroll report and payment due on or before the last day of the month after earnings are paid. Quarterly reporting is a privilege the Division may grant based on prior diligence, and it can be revoked, which puts the employer back on a monthly cadence.

Two things follow. A Wyoming employer can be filing 12 workers compensation payroll reports and 4 unemployment contribution reports in one year, so a payroll tax calendar built on quarters alone misses two thirds of the workers compensation reports. And reports are due even in periods with no payroll: zero wage reporting is still reporting.

Falling behind on these reports costs money. Late filing past 30 days carries a penalty, and an account delinquent when an injury occurs can be charged for the cost of the case.

Crews that cross state lines

Wyoming payrolls travel. Energy service, construction, and trucking work crosses the Montana, Colorado, Utah, and Dakota lines constantly. For unemployment and withholding that is an ordinary multi-state payroll problem, and the receiving state usually has an income tax where Wyoming does not.

For workers compensation it is a reciprocity question: whether the other state honors your Wyoming coverage. Wyoming recognizes extraterritorial coverage with Utah, Oregon, Nevada (except for construction employers), North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and California. Working into one of those states means requesting an extraterritorial certificate; working into any other means asking that state what it requires before the crew arrives.

Employers coming the other way have a step to clear first. Under W.S. 27-14-302(b), a nonresident employer must register, and either pay an advance premium deposit or file a surety bond or other security approved by the director, before it starts business or engages work in the state. A certificate of coverage from a reciprocal home state waives that requirement.

An employer with a crew that works some weeks in Montana or Colorado is shopping for a different payroll product than a Cheyenne office with everyone in one building. Since Wyoming adds no withholding complexity to price against, the multi-state line is often the only item on a quote that separates the finalists.

10 payroll providers for Wyoming employers compared

Every provider below files Wyoming unemployment insurance contributions, and none of them has state income tax withholding to get wrong here. The differences that matter are how the platform handles the workers compensation side of the state wage listing, what a second state costs, and whether the price is published at all.

OnPay

OnPay sells one payroll plan at $49 per month plus $6 per employee, with no tiers to climb. HR tools and time tracking are paid add-ons.

Tax filing covers all 50 states with no multi-state surcharge, and year-end W-2 and 1099 filing sits in the base price. For a Wyoming employer whose main variable is how often work crosses a state line, multi-state filing at no extra charge covers most of the complexity the state creates.

Gusto

Gusto is a common first payroll purchase for US small businesses. Tax filing is automatic, the interface is pleasant, and pricing is published. Its Simple plan runs $49 per month plus $6 per employee, after a base increase from $40 during 2025.

The catch for Wyoming employers is that Simple covers single-state payroll only, and Wyoming is surrounded by six states. One hire or one recurring job site in Utah or Nebraska moves you to Plus at $80 plus $12 per employee. Model the Plus number if a second state is even plausible.

Patriot Software

Patriot has the lowest total cost on this list at 10, 25, and 50 employees. Full Service is $37 per month plus $5 per employee and files federal, state, and local taxes, while new hire reports stay with you.

Patriot's Basic plan is $17 per month plus $4 per employee if you file taxes yourself, which is a lighter burden here than in most states because there is no withholding return to hand-file.

Additional state filings cost $12 per month each. For a single-location Wyoming employer with no cross-border work, Patriot is hard to beat on price; for a service company with crews in three states, the per-state fee starts to close the gap with the providers that include every state.

SurePayroll

SurePayroll is owned by Paychex and aimed at very small employers and household employers. Its Small Business plan is $29 per month plus $7 per employee, with a flat $9.99 monthly multi-state fee regardless of how many states are involved. For a Wyoming business with people across the Montana, Colorado, or South Dakota line, that flat structure beats per-state pricing quickly.

QuickBooks Workforce Payroll

Workforce Payroll is the former QuickBooks Payroll Core, renamed in May 2026, and it costs $50 per month plus $7 per employee. Per-employee pricing rose across all tiers on July 1, 2026. The reason to pick it has always been the same: if your books already live in QuickBooks Online, payroll entries reach the general ledger without an export step.

ADP RUN

ADP pays roughly one in six US workers, per its fiscal 2026 annual report. Every RUN package calculates, files, deposits, and reconciles payroll taxes, and ADP pays the resulting fines if it makes a filing error.

For a Wyoming employer the argument for ADP is not withholding complexity, because there is none. It is the annual reset of the unemployment wage base reaching the tax tables without anyone at your company tracking the state register.

The trade-off is opacity. ADP publishes no price for any RUN package, from Essential and Enhanced to Complete and HR Pro, so every quote is individual. ADP says RUN needs no signed contract and the service can be ended at any time.

Paychex Flex

Paychex competes with ADP on the same terms: a service relationship rather than a software subscription, with a payroll specialist included on the Complete package. Pricing is quote-only across the Basic, Foundations, Advanced, and Complete packages, and the standard service agreement can be ended on 30 days' notice.

Paychex is worth a quote if you would rather call a person about an unemployment tax notice than work through it yourself.

Paylocity

Paylocity sits between small-business payroll and a full human capital management (HCM) suite, aimed at companies that have outgrown basic payroll but do not want enterprise complexity. It publishes tax and compliance resources for employers, and the HR module covers performance, learning, and engagement alongside payroll. Pricing is quote-based, and implementation is a project rather than a signup.

Rippling

Rippling sells a unified employee record where payroll, HR, and IT provisioning (laptops and app access) share one data model. Its pricing page is a quote form, but Rippling's small-business page starts payroll plans at $8 per user per month plus a $40 monthly base fee, and says the final cost depends on which other products you add. Its blog prices the core platform from $8 per employee per month and domestic payroll at another $8 billed annually or $10 billed monthly, so a configured quote can run above that start.

The same blog estimates roughly $15 to $25 per employee per month for a 100-employee company running HR, payroll, benefits administration, and time and attendance.

Justworks

Justworks is two products under one name. Payroll is $50 per month plus $8 per employee and is straightforward software. PEO Basic at $79 per employee per month is a co-employment arrangement giving a small Wyoming business access to benefits priced off a much larger risk pool.

That pooled benefits pricing is the main reason to consider it, and in a thin insurance market it carries more weight than it does in Denver or Salt Lake.

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What each provider actually costs a Wyoming employer

The table below models published rates at three headcounts, plus what happens when a second state enters the picture. That last column matters more in Wyoming than in most states.

Patriot stays cheapest at every headcount, and its lead widens as the team grows: at 50 employees it costs $287, against $349 to $450 for the other published plans.

The second-state column reorders things: Gusto Simple is competitive until one out-of-state job forces the Plus tier, taking a 25-person payroll from $199 to $380 per month, while SurePayroll absorbs the same change for $9.99.

Software price is not the whole Wyoming number. For a covered employer, workers compensation premium is calculated from the industry base rate against reported payroll, and at a construction base rate of 2.55 it dwarfs any subscription here.

Unemployment contributions come on top of the premium, charged on the first $34,900 of each employee's wages from January 1, 2027 ($33,800 in 2026). Both are statutory costs no provider changes.

Choosing a payroll provider for Wyoming

Four questions separate providers that will work here from providers that will quietly generate correction notices.

Some of the work sits outside the payroll engine entirely. Every Wyoming new hire needs a federal I-9 and W-4, a signed direct deposit authorization if pay is not by check, and a new hire report within 20 days.

Worker classification matters too. The state test requires a contractor to be free from control, hold out as independent, and be able to substitute someone else, and failing any prong makes the person an employee for both programs. Getting classification wrong costs premium and contributions at once.

Before you choose

FirstHR covers the layer that feeds payroll: onboarding workflows that put the I-9 and W-4 on the first-day task list of each new hire, e-signatures on offer letters, employee records, and HR document management for US small businesses at a flat $98 a month for up to 10 people or $198 for 11 to 50.

Calculating pay, moving money, and filing payroll taxes come from the providers above, so if running payroll is the problem in front of you, one of them is the answer.

Several Wyoming obligations are document problems rather than payroll problems: the W-4 the 20-day new hire report is built from, the direct deposit authorization that has to be voluntary and on file, and the hire dates that end up on a state wage listing. If the recurring failure is paperwork never collected before day one, that is the gap we built for.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does Wyoming have a state income tax on wages?

No. Wyoming imposes no individual or corporate income tax, and no city or county levies an income or payroll tax. That removes the state withholding account, certificate, and return. It removes nothing federal: withholding, Social Security, Medicare, and federal unemployment tax all still apply, as do state unemployment contributions and workers compensation premium.

What is the Wyoming unemployment insurance wage base?

$34,900 per employee from January 1, 2027 ($33,800 for 2026, up from $32,400 in 2025). Contributions are employer-paid and may not be deducted from wages under W.S. 27-3-503(a). Wyoming applies no payroll-size threshold, so an employer with one employee is covered on the same terms as a large one.

What unemployment tax rate does a new Wyoming employer pay?

A base rate equal to the average paid by its major industrial classification in the prior year, plus four adjustment factors, never below 1 percent before those factors under W.S. 27-3-503(f). Experienced employers are rated on their own benefit ratio, capped at 8.5 percent, and federal compilations effective January 2026 show assigned rates of 0.10 to 8.50 percent.

Is workers compensation insurance required in Wyoming?

Yes for extrahazardous employment as defined by NAICS code in W.S. 27-14-108, covering whole sectors such as mining, utilities, construction, and manufacturing, plus listed industries such as logging. Required coverage is available only from the state Workers Compensation Division. Other employers may elect optional coverage, which binds for two years and brings exclusive remedy protection.

How much are Wyoming workers compensation industry base rates?

The current schedule covers 127 NAICS classifications from 0.05 for securities and commodity contracts to 7.13 for transit and ground passenger transportation, with construction of buildings at 2.55 and clerical office occupations at 0.31. Every classification fell against the prior year. Each rate is then modified by a three-year experience rating starting at 1.0 for new employers.

What is the Wyoming minimum wage?

$5.15 per hour under W.S. 27-4-202, with a $2.13 tipped cash wage and a $4.25 youth rate for the first 90 consecutive days for employees under 20. Those rates carry an April 2001 effective date in the statute and are not indexed, so the federal $7.25 governs most employers. No Wyoming city sets its own floor.

How often do Wyoming employers have to pay employees?

W.S. 27-4-101 requires semimonthly payment only from railroads, mines, refineries, oil and gas work, and any other factory, mill, or workshop: first-half wages by the first of the following month, second-half by the fifteenth. Agriculture is exempt and other employers have no statutory frequency requirement, though every employer must furnish an itemized deduction statement with each payment.

When is a final paycheck due in Wyoming?

On the next regularly scheduled payday, and the deadline is the same whether the employee quit or was discharged. W.S. 27-4-104 phrases it as no later than the employer's usual practice on regularly scheduled payroll dates, or a time set by a collective bargaining agreement. Wages proven due in court carry 18 percent annual interest plus attorney fees.

Do Wyoming employers have to provide a pay stub?

Yes. W.S. 27-4-101(b) requires an itemized written statement of all deductions with every wage payment, as a detachable part of the check or a slip attached to the payment. Direct deposit is permitted only where the employee has voluntarily authorized it, which makes that authorization worth keeping in the payroll record.

How do I register a business for Wyoming payroll taxes?

One application at the state employer portal opens both accounts, typically within one to two business days, and assigns the NAICS code that drives the workers compensation classification and a new employer's unemployment base rate. Filing a report before completing the Joint Business Registration triggers the highest base rate available. There is no state withholding registration.

How long do Wyoming employers have to report a new hire?

Twenty days from the hire date under W.S. 27-1-115, or two electronic transmissions per month, 12 to 16 days apart. The report may be made on the federal W-4 or an approved equivalent, and a rehire counts where the employee was separated for at least 60 days.

Are tips included in Wyoming payroll tax calculations?

For unemployment insurance yes, for workers compensation no, and both are reported on the same wage listing. Vacation, sick leave, overtime, and bonuses count for both. Each line also carries a coverage type of B, U, or W, which is why a single gross wage field is not enough for a tipped employer.

Does Wyoming have any local or city payroll taxes?

No. No municipality or county levies an income tax, occupational privilege tax, or employer payroll tax. The variable is extraterritorial workers compensation instead. Wyoming recognizes reciprocity with Utah, Oregon, Nevada (outside construction), North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and California. A nonresident employer must post an advance premium deposit or an approved surety bond before it starts work here, unless a reciprocal home-state certificate covers it.

How much does payroll software cost for a Wyoming small business?

At 10 employees, published October 2026 rates run roughly $87 for Patriot Full Service, $99 for SurePayroll, $109 for OnPay or Gusto Simple, $120 for QuickBooks Workforce Payroll, and $130 for Justworks Payroll. At 50 employees the same plans land between $287 and $450. ADP RUN, Paychex Flex, and Paylocity quote individually rather than publishing rates, and Rippling publishes only a payroll starting price of $8 per user plus a $40 monthly base fee, with the final figure set by quote.