North Dakota Workers Compensation: Employer Rules

A contractor in Bismarck called me the week he hired his first two crew members. His insurance agent back in Minnesota had quoted him a workers compensation policy in about ten minutes the year before. This time the same agent told him no. Not a bad rate, not a hard market for construction risk. Just no.

North Dakota is one of the few states where workers compensation is not sold by insurance companies at all. Workforce Safety and Insurance, the state fund known as WSI, is the only source, and you apply to it directly. That one fact changes how you buy coverage, what you can put on a certificate for a general contractor, and which piece of protection you are quietly missing.

This page sticks to North Dakota: when coverage becomes mandatory, who sits outside it, what has to be posted, how fast an injury has to be reported, and what happens if you go without coverage. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not an insurer or a broker, and we do not sell coverage, so nothing below is a pitch.

Which North Dakota Employers Need Coverage

Every employer with an employee working in North Dakota needs coverage, starting with the first hire. There is no headcount threshold to grow into, and no waiting period.

WSI puts it directly on its coverage requirements page: North Dakota law, with limited exceptions, requires all employers to insure all employees including full-time, part-time, seasonal and occasional workers, before those employees begin working. A summer helper counts. A weekend closer counts. Somebody hired for one job counts.

The timing matters more here than in most states. North Dakota Century Code (N.D.C.C.) section 65-04-33 states the rule directly: an employer may not employ a person in hazardous employment, the statute’s term for covered work, without first applying for coverage and telling WSI the nature of the intended employment and the estimated payroll. An application filed on someone’s first morning is already late.

Out-of-state employers get pulled in on a different test. WSI treats an employer as having significant contacts with North Dakota when an employee earns, or expects to earn, 25 percent or more of gross annual income from that employer for services rendered inside the state.

If you run payroll in Minnesota or Montana and a technician spends a quarter of the year in Williston, that is a North Dakota coverage question, not a home-state one.

Who Sits Outside Mandatory Coverage

A short list of workers falls outside mandatory coverage, and almost everyone on it can be covered voluntarily instead. WSI calls that elective coverage: it is a separate application and contract, it is not required by law, and it takes effect only once WSI approves it.

The exempt categories come from WSI’s coverage types page, which also confirms that elective coverage is available for every exempt group except federal and railroad employees.

Read the last two rows together, because that is where small employers lose money. There is no casual labor exemption to hide a short job in, and a contractor label does not settle anything by itself. WSI weighs factors such as integration into the business, whether the worker serves the public, significant investment, the right to end the relationship and the chance of profit or loss.

WSI is also blunt about paperwork: a worker who is an employee for WSI purposes cannot sign an agreement waiving rights under Title 65, the workers compensation title of the Century Code.

One more piece of exposure runs downhill. WSI states that general contractors and subcontractors are liable for premium and any applicable penalty for an employee of a subcontractor or independent contractor that does not secure required coverage. Before you hire a sub, check them in WSI’s employer search tool. That check takes a minute and keeps their uninsured problem off your balance sheet.

Where You Buy the Policy: WSI and Nowhere Else

There is one seller. Workforce Safety and Insurance writes all workers compensation coverage in North Dakota, private insurers do not sell the line here, and there is no competitive state fund to bid against them. You apply to WSI directly and you pay WSI directly.

A single state seller also means some of the paperwork you are used to handing over does not exist in the same form. WSI states on its coverage limits and subrogation page that because it is a state agency it does not issue a written policy at all: every provision lives in North Dakota statute or administrative rules instead.

WSI also states that it does not allow additional insureds on an account, so it will not name another business on your coverage. Nor does it waive its rights of subrogation, meaning its right to recover what it paid from a third party who caused the injury.

When a general contractor sends you an insurance requirement asking for both, that request was written for a private-market state. The answer in North Dakota is proof of an active WSI account rather than an endorsement.

Self-insurance is the other route employers ask about, because almost every other state lets a qualified employer carry its own risk. North Dakota is not one of them. A June 2023 Wyoming Legislative Service Office memo states that Wyoming and North Dakota are the only two states that do not allow employers required to have coverage to self-insure or join a self-insurance group.

WSI’s published coverage material matches that: it describes one path only, an application to WSI, and lists no self-insurance program or qualification standard.

Premium works differently too. There is no shopping season and no quote comparison, so the two things you control are payroll classification accuracy and safety programs that earn premium discounts.

Rates here are the lowest in the country, which is the one upside of a single seller. The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services benchmarks all 51 jurisdictions on one shared set of class codes, and its 2024 premium rate ranking reports a North Dakota index rate of $0.50 per $100 of payroll against a national median of $1.09.

The Employer Liability Gap

WSI coverage is not employer liability insurance, and nothing in the state fund fills that space. The gap stays invisible until an injury-related lawsuit arrives that the benefit system does not answer.

In most states a workers compensation policy carries two parts: Part One pays statutory benefits, and Part Two is employer liability, which responds to injury-related suits that fall outside the benefit system. North Dakota only sells the first half.

WSI states that its coverage does not include general liability coverage, and its all states coverage for employees traveling out of state on a temporary and incidental basis expressly does not provide employer liability coverage either.

The out-of-state piece is worth knowing on its own. WSI enrolls active policyholders in good standing into all states coverage automatically through an arrangement with an outside carrier, which handles North Dakota workers traveling elsewhere temporarily. That is not the same as coverage for a permanent worksite in another state, and it is not employer liability.

If you open a location across a state line, that state’s own rules apply, and our state-by-state overview of workers compensation requirements is the place to start.

Posters, Notices and New Hire Paperwork

Two documents belong on your wall, and a third belongs in the new hire packet if you pick a medical provider for work injuries. The legally required one on the wall is the WSI Certificate of Payment.

Century Code section 65-04-04 requires every covered employer to display a certificate showing compliance, with the toll-free number for reporting unsafe working conditions and suspected fraud, and sets a $250 civil penalty for failing to display them.

The other wall document is the Important Notice to Workers, which WSI publishes in English and Spanish. It tells employees what to do if they are injured, warns them to notify their employer promptly, and lists the numbers to call.

The third document, and the one with the most riding on it, is the designated medical provider notice. A designated medical provider, which WSI calls a DMP, is the medical professional or facility an employer selects to treat work-related injuries.

Selecting a DMP is optional. Making the selection stick is not: under Century Code section 65-05-28.2, an employer that selects a DMP has to inform employees in writing when it selects or changes the provider, at hire and at least once a year, and display the selection conspicuously at fixed worksites and, wherever feasible, at mobile ones.

Miss any of that and the selection is void. The statute says a failure to give written notice or post it invalidates the selection for the employee’s claim, and the Important Notice to Workers carries the same warning. An injured worker can then treat anywhere, and your program does nothing.

That written notice at hire is the North Dakota item to add to your new hire paperwork, alongside the federal forms that apply in every state.

A DMP selection does not control emergency treatment or care for an injury the worker reasonably did not know was work-related. A worker who elected a different provider and told the employer in writing before the injury can treat there instead, though the employer may object and WSI then rules on it.

The rules also bind the worker, who has to treat with the selected provider for at least 30 days before requesting a change.

The state’s own poster list draws the same line between the two wall documents. The North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights puts the WSI Certificate of Payment on its required list, next to the state wage poster, and lists the WSI notice to workers as optional.

Post the notice to workers anyway. It costs nothing, and the state poster set is a short list to keep current in any case, as covered in our guide to workplace safety posters.

Injury Reporting Deadlines

Three clocks start the moment someone gets hurt, and they are not the same length. The worker tells you, the claim goes to WSI, and you file your own report, each on its own schedule.

The employer filing deadline is the one people miss, and WSI states it plainly on its claims process page: an employer is required to file a First Report of Injury with WSI within seven days of receiving notice of an injury from an employee. WSI registers the claim on receipt and generally assigns a claim number within 24 hours.

The incident report deserves a habit of its own. When a worker gets hurt but does not seek care, filing an incident report by midnight on the next WSI business day both flags the hazard and protects you.

The protection is financial. WSI charges employers a medical assessment, a share of the medical expenses on each claim filed, billed monthly. Under its assessment rules, you pay the first $250 of medical bills when the claim reaches WSI 2 to 14 calendar days after the injury, and the first $350 when it arrives more than 14 calendar days after you were notified.

An incident report filed by that midnight deadline earns a waiver: if the worker later seeks care and the claim reaches WSI within 14 calendar days of the incident, WSI waives the $250 charge. Without the report, the charge still applies whenever a claim is eventually filed, which removes any reason to wait and see.

What Going Without Coverage Costs

Being uninsured in North Dakota costs more than the premium you skipped, and the exposure is both civil and criminal. WSI publishes the civil side on its failure to secure coverage page, and sections 65-04-33 and 65-04-27.2 of the Century Code supply the rest.

The full statutory scheme in chapter 65-04 of the Century Code goes further, allowing WSI to seek a court injunction against continued employment of uninsured workers, with a fine of at least $1,000 for each violation of the injunction. It also reaches employers who make false statements to defeat a benefit claim, or who discharge or threaten an employee for seeking one.

Set against that, the premium on a small payroll is not the expensive part of this decision. The expensive part is one injury during a month you meant to get around to the application.

What to Do When Someone Gets Hurt

Work the sequence in order, and start it the same day. The first three steps are the ones that decide whether the claim goes smoothly.

Documentation is what carries this. Open a file for each claim on the day of the injury and keep the claim paperwork, the restrictions, the offer of transitional duty and the dates in it. All of it matters later, and reconstructing it from memory never goes well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need workers compensation in North Dakota with only one employee?

Yes. North Dakota sets no headcount threshold. Every employee has to be insured before starting work, whether full-time, part-time, seasonal or occasional. State law bars putting anyone to work before applying to WSI, so the paperwork has to go in ahead of a start date. Out-of-state employers are pulled in when an employee earns or expects to earn 25 percent or more of gross annual income from that employer for services performed in the state.

Can I buy workers compensation from a private insurance company in North Dakota?

No. North Dakota is a monopolistic state fund jurisdiction and WSI is the only source. Private carriers do not write the line here and there is no competitive fund. Because WSI is a state agency it issues no written policy: the provisions live in statute and administrative rules. It also does not allow additional insureds on an account and does not waive subrogation, so a contractor asking for either is asking for something the fund does not do.

Are owners and corporate officers covered by WSI?

Not automatically. An owner, partner, corporate officer or spouse sits outside mandatory coverage, as do the employer’s children under 22. Any of them can be added through elective coverage, which is a separate application and contract approved by WSI. Elective coverage is available for every exempt category except federal and railroad employees. Watch the age line: a child of the employer stops being exempt at 22, and coverage becomes mandatory from that point.

How fast does a workplace injury have to be reported?

The worker should tell you as soon as possible, and WSI warns that a claim may be denied if the injury is not reported to the employer within seven days. The claim goes to WSI within 24 hours of the injury. You then file your own First Report of Injury within seven days of receiving notice. The outside statutory limit is one year after an injury, or two years after a death.

What happens if I do not have coverage?

You owe back premium for the uninsured period, a penalty of 25 percent of the most recent year’s premium that rises for earlier years, up to $5,000 per premium period, and the actual cost and reserves of claims from that period. Workers may also sue an uninsured employer directly. Section 65-04-33 makes willfully going without coverage a class A misdemeanor, or a class C felony above $1,000 in premium, and defying a WSI cease and desist order adds $10,000 plus $100 a day.

Does WSI coverage include employer liability insurance?

No. WSI pays benefits under Title 65 but states that its coverage does not include general liability coverage, and its all states coverage does not provide employer liability either. Employers fill that gap with a stop gap employer liability endorsement on a commercial general liability policy from a private insurer. Ask your commercial agent for it by name, because a policy written for a private-market state will usually leave it out.

Do I have to post a workers compensation notice?

Yes. Section 65-04-04 requires you to display the WSI Certificate of Payment and the toll-free safety and fraud number, with a $250 penalty for skipping them. The Important Notice to Workers, in English and Spanish, is optional but worth posting. If you select a designated medical provider, give written notice and post the selection, or the selection is not valid.