North Carolina Pay Stub Requirements & Payroll Taxes

North Carolina is the state where the honest answer is the surprising one: it does not require a full pay stub. The Wage and Hour Act requires an employer to tell you your wages and payday in writing when you are hired, and to give you an itemized statement of deductions for each period in which deductions are made — but nothing in state law obliges an employer to show you your gross wages, your hours or your net pay the way California, New York and Ohio do. On the tax side the state is simple and getting simpler: a single flat rate that fell again for 2026.

It's a general guide, not legal or tax advice. For your specific situation, check the source links below or talk to a licensed payroll, tax, or employment-law professional.

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Is a pay stub required in North Carolina?

Partly. North Carolina General Statute § 95-25.13 imposes two narrower duties rather than a full pay stub requirement: written notice of your promised wages and payday at the time of hiring, and an itemized statement of deductions for each pay period in which deductions are taken. There is no state obligation to itemize gross pay, hours worked, rates or net pay — if your North Carolina stub shows those, it is because your employer or its payroll provider chose to, or because federal recordkeeping made it convenient, not because the state requires it.

Required on every wage statement — N.C. Gen. Stat. § 95-25.13:

Written notice, at the time of hiring, of the promised wages and the day and place for payment
An itemized statement of the deductions made from the employee's wages under § 95-25.8, furnished for each pay period in which deductions are made
Not required by state law: gross wages, net wages, hours worked, pay rates, or the inclusive dates of the pay period — the items California, New York and Ohio each mandate

Penalty for non-compliance (N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 95-25.8, 95-25.22): North Carolina attaches no fixed per-pay-period damages to a defective statement, as New York does. The Wage and Hour Act is enforced by the N.C. Department of Labor and through private action for unpaid wages, where an employee may recover the wages owed plus interest, with liquidated damages and attorney's fees available in appropriate cases. The practical risk for an employer sits in § 95-25.8 instead: a deduction taken without the written authorization that section requires is simply an unlawful withholding of wages, whatever the statement says.

How often must employees be paid?

North Carolina does not prescribe a minimum pay frequency the way most states do. Instead it binds the employer to what it promised: wages are due on the regular payday the employer designated and told the employee about at hiring, whether that is weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly or monthly. The obligation is to keep to the announced schedule and to give notice before changing it.

Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. § 95-25.13

North Carolina minimum wage

North Carolina's statute names its own figure of $6.15 an hour but requires the employer to pay that or the federal minimum wage, whichever is higher. Because the federal rate has been $7.25 since 2009, the state figure has never been the one that applies.

$7.25 per hour statewide, effective July 24, 2009 (the federal rate, which supersedes the state's own $6.15)The state rate rises only when the federal minimum wage rises — there is no North Carolina indexing schedule and no separate local minimum wage for private employers to track.

The statute sets the state floor at $6.15 per hour, but § 95-25.3 requires payment of the federal minimum under section 6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act whenever that is higher, which it has been throughout.
Tipped employees: the federal tip credit applies; the employer must make up the difference if tips do not bring total earnings to the full minimum wage.

Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. § 95-25.3

Overtime & double time

North Carolina follows the federal weekly overtime standard without adding to it. There is no daily overtime threshold and no seventh-consecutive-day rule, so overtime begins only once the workweek passes 40 hours.

Trigger	Pay rate
Daily overtime	No state daily overtime rule.
Weekly overtime	1.5× the regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a single workweek.
7th consecutive workday	No state seventh-consecutive-day rule.

Source: Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 207; N.C. Gen. Stat. § 95-25.4

North Carolina state income tax

North Carolina taxes individual income at a single flat rate, applied to North Carolina taxable income rather than to gross wages. The rate has been stepping down for several years under Session Law 2023-134 and fell again for the 2026 tax year, from 4.25% to 3.99%. There are no brackets and no local income taxes layered on top, which makes a North Carolina stub one of the simplest in the country on the state side.

North Carolina flat income tax rate by tax year

Taxable income	Rate
All taxable income	3.99% for 2026 (all taxable income)

The rate applies to every dollar of North Carolina taxable income, with no bracket structure. For comparison, the same rate was 4.25% in 2025, 4.50% in 2024, 4.75% in 2023 and 4.99% in 2022. Further reductions may apply from 2027 under the rate-reduction triggers in Session Law 2023-134, which turn on whether state revenue clears set thresholds — so this is a figure worth re-checking each January rather than assuming.

Source: NCDOR, Tax Rate Schedules (Session Law 2023-134)

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Vacation & paid time off (PTO)

North Carolina does not require an employer to offer paid vacation. Once it promises vacation, though, the Wage and Hour Act treats that promise as enforceable: the employer must give the time off, or payment in lieu of it, in accordance with its own company policy or practice.

Promised vacation is a wage benefit the employer is bound to deliver on its own stated terms. The policy becomes the standard the employer is held to, which is why what the handbook says matters more in North Carolina than in states with a statutory rule.

"Use-it-or-lose-it" policies:Forfeiture is permitted, but only on notice. An employer that operates a policy or practice which requires or results in the loss or forfeiture of vacation time or pay must notify employees of it. A forfeiture clause an employee was never told about is the one an employer is most likely to lose on.

Paid out at termination?Paid out at separation if the employer's policy or practice provides for it — and not otherwise. There is no statutory right to a payout of accrued vacation in North Carolina the way there is in California.

Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. § 95-25.12

Final paycheck rules

North Carolina sets one deadline for final wages and does not vary it by how the employment ended. It also gives the departing employee a say in how the money is sent.

Situation	Final wages due
Fired or laid off	All wages due are payable on or before the next regular payday, through the regular pay channels.
Quits, resigns or retires (notice makes no difference)	The same deadline applies: all wages due on or before the next regular payday. An employee who asks in writing may require the final payment to be sent by trackable mail rather than collected in person.

Late final pay:There is no waiting-time penalty accruing a day's wages per day of delay. Unpaid final wages are pursued through the N.C. Department of Labor or in court under the Wage and Hour Act, where the wages owed may be recovered with interest, and liquidated damages and attorney's fees are available in appropriate cases. Note that commissions and bonuses count as wages once their conditions have been met, so they belong in the final payment.

Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. § 95-25.7

Other North Carolina payroll taxes employers should know

Only one state payroll tax applies in North Carolina, and the employee does not pay it. There is no state disability insurance, no paid family and medical leave contribution, and no local income tax — so on the state side a North Carolina stub carries a single flat income tax line and nothing else.

Tax	Rate	Notes
State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) — employer only	0.06% to 5.76% for 2026 depending on the employer's experience rating; 1.00% standard beginning rate for a new employer	Taxable wage base is the first $34,200 of each employee's wages for 2026 — among the higher wage bases in the country, and far above the $9,000 used by Texas and Ohio. Not deducted from employee wages; confirm your own assigned rate on the annual notice from the Division of Employment Security.
Local or municipal income tax	None	No North Carolina city, county or school district levies an income tax, which is the sharpest contrast with Ohio, where municipal and school district taxes are withheld on top of the state rate.
State Disability Insurance (SDI)	None	North Carolina operates no state disability insurance programme, so there is no employee deduction of the kind New York's DBL line represents.
Paid Family and Medical Leave	None	No state paid family or medical leave payroll contribution. Any such benefit is a voluntary employer plan rather than a state programme.

Source: NC Division of Employment Security, Tax Rate Information (2026)

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Guides that go with this page

North Carolina's rules decide what has to appear on the stub. These cover what the figures on it actually mean, wherever you work.

What a pay stub is, line by line — Every section of a stub and what each figure means.
Gross pay vs. net pay — Why the amount that reaches your bank is a quarter smaller than your salary.
Pay stub mistakes worth catching early — The errors that are easy to fix this month and hard to fix next year.
The extra 0.9% above $200,000 — Why your employer's withholding and what you actually owe can disagree.

Sources & references

Every figure on this page links back to the primary source below. State and federal payroll rules change — always confirm current-year figures directly with the agency before relying on exact dollar amounts.

Last checked: October 2026. See our editorial standards & sources for how these figures are verified.