Employer guideRead at source September 28, 2026

North Dakota New Hire Reporting: Deadline, What to Report and How to File (2026)

North Dakota employers must report each newly hired employee to the State Directory of New Hires no later than 20 days after the date of hire (N.D.C.C. § 34-15-03). Employers with more than 24 employees must file electronically; smaller employers can also fax or mail. Independent contractors are not required. After a written warning, the civil penalty is $20 per unreported hire, or $250 where employer and employee agree not to report.

North Dakota new hire reporting at a glance

North Dakota keeps the federal 20-day window. Two things set it apart: the size-based electronic filing mandate and a penalty schedule that differs from the federal model. Our new hire reporting requirements page has the federal baseline and a state-by-state table.

The eight items on a North Dakota report

§ 34-15-03(1) lists what each report must contain, and the state's factsheet repeats it:

• Employee: name, address, Social Security number, date of hire.
• Health insurance: whether the employer offers health insurance to the employee.
• Employer: name, address and Federal Employer Identification Number.

The health insurance question is the only addition to the federal seven, and in North Dakota it is a required field, not an optional one. It is a yes-or-no about the offer, not the employee's enrollment choice, so HR can answer it from the job's benefits eligibility the day the person starts. The state treats someone as reportable, as a general rule, if they will receive a W-2 showing taxes withheld. Its FAQ is explicit that this covers full-time, part-time and temporary employees, adults and minors alike, even if it is known that the new hire does not have children. A high school student on a summer produce crew is reported the same way as a full-time driver.

How to file, and when you must file electronically

§ 34-15-04(3) says an employer that employs more than twenty-four employees at any time must report new hires through an electronic method provided by the department. Two details in that sentence matter for frontline employers. It counts total employees, not new hires. And the phrase at any time means a business that crosses 24 during a harvest, construction season or holiday peak is covered. The statute also says an employer that does not comply is deemed to have failed to report, so a paper filing from a covered employer does not count. The department may waive the requirement for good cause; ask Employer Relations about the waiver process.

A payroll service can report for you. The online reporting login is at apps.nd.gov/dhs/cs/newhire. Paper reports go by fax to (701) 328-5497 or by mail to Child Support, PO Box 7190, Bismarck, ND 58507-7190. The federal contact guide still shows PO Box 7369 and a different phone number; the state's own pages, read today, show the PO Box 7190 address and (701) 328-6524, so use those.

Twenty days from the first day of work for pay

§ 34-15-03(4)(a) says the report must be made no later than twenty days after the date the employer hires the employee, and § 34-15-01 defines date of hire as the date services for remuneration were first performed by the employee. Electronic filers may instead send two monthly transmissions, if necessary, not less than twelve nor more than sixteen days apart.

For oil field services, trucking and agriculture, where people are often hired days or weeks before the crew or the season actually starts, this distinction does real work. The 20 days begin on the first paid day on site or in orientation. A seasonal hand signed in March who starts in May is reported in May.

Independent contractors

North Dakota does not require contractor reporting. Chapter 34-15 defines employee by reference to the federal income tax withholding rules, the state's pages describe reportable workers as W-2 employees, and the federal contact guide records North Dakota as a no. If a worker is misclassified, the reporting duty follows the correct classification.

Penalties under chapter 34-15

North Dakota's numbers differ from the federal template. Under § 34-15-05, the department may first issue a written warning. An employer who, after that warning, fails to file a timely, complete and correct report is liable for a civil money penalty of $20 for each failure. Where the failure or a false or incomplete report comes from an agreement between employer and employee, the penalty is $250 for each failure or false report. Under § 34-15-06 the penalty is payable 15 days after notice is served by first-class mail, and an unpaid judgment can be enforced as contempt of court. Collected penalties go to the state's child support collection and disbursement fund (§ 34-15-07).

Rehired employees

North Dakota publishes a clear threshold. § 34-15-01(4) defines an employee newly hired as one who has not previously been employed by the employer, or who was previously employed but has been separated from that employment for at least sixty consecutive days. The factsheet puts it as at least 60 days in a row. So a seasonal worker who left in October and returns in April is reported again; someone back from a two-week gap is not. See our rehire policy guide for the HR side of bringing people back.

If you employ people in other states

§ 34-15-03(2) lets an employer with employees in two or more states that reports electronically designate one state and send all reports there, after notifying the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in writing. North Dakota's FAQ notes that payroll services cannot use this option for their customers unless the customers are multistate employers who have asked for it. Our parent guide covers the registration mechanics.

Hiring in North Dakota

For wage and hour rules, see our North Dakota labor laws guide and the North Dakota minimum wage page; the new hire forms checklist puts the report alongside the other first-week paperwork. Boostpoint runs social job ads on Facebook and Instagram that bring frontline applicants to employers like yours. In our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark (891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta), the median cost per applicant was $13.88 across all roles, with no state-level split.

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