North Dakota Labor Laws: A Complete Guide to Wages, Breaks, Overtime, and More (2025)

The Family Medical and Leave Act, or FMLA, is a federal act that entitles eligible employees to take leave for specific family and medical reasons. This is a job-protected, unpaid leave with the following terms:

12 leave weeks in a 12-month calendar period for:

• The birth of a child and taking care of the child within a year of birth
• Adoption of a child within one year of adoption
• Caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a severe health condition
• Recovering from a serious condition that precludes employees from performing job duties
• Qualifying exigency if a child, spouse, or parent is a military member under “covered active duty”

Sick leave is a paid, job-protected leave for employees to recuperate from injuries or illnesses. Employees may qualify for sick leave on an accrual or carry-over basis.

With the accrual system, employees accrue sick leave days based on the number of hours they work in a calendar year. 

For instance, this is 0.5 leave hours for every work hour. The accrued leave hours expire when the year ends. 

The carry-over system, on the other hand, lets employees carry over their accrued leave hours from one year to the next.

Under North Dakota law, employees accrue eight leave hours for every month they work. The law also doesn’t limit the number of leave hours employees can carry over year-to-year. Employees can take sick leave in the following conditions:

• They are unable to work due to injury or illness.
• They have appointments for the treatment or diagnosis of medical conditions.
• They have to attend to an ailing family member (limited to 80 hours in a calendar year).
• They have to attend to a newly born or adopted child during the first six months of birth/adoption (limited to 480 hours per calendar year).
• They are pursuing services and legal action for a family member or spouse who falls victim to domestic violence or sexual assault (limited to 40 hours per calendar year).
• They are grieving the death of a child within six months after the death (limited to 160 hours within a calendar year).

In North Dakota, paid or unpaid vacation leaves are not required to be provided by employers. However, employers must adhere to any existing or established policies and contractual agreements.

Employers also cannot require employees to forfeit their accrued vacation leaves when they leave the company, regardless of the reason. 

However, employers can: 

• Cap the number of vacation days an employee accrues
• Implement a “use-it-or-lose-it” policy requiring employees to use their vacation leaves by a certain date

Employers in North Dakota are required to provide 24 working hours of honor guard leave per calendar year for eligible employees who will participate as an honor guard for a military funeral service of a veteran. 

Regular public sector employees in North Dakota who are organ and bone marrow donors can take up to 20 days of Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Leave. When requesting this type of leave, employees need verification by a physician.

Employers in North Dakota are required to grant paid leave for employees who are selected for jury duty.

An employee who is called to appear as a witness on behalf of the employer should be paid for their time and reimbursed for lodging, mileage, and meals.

The current minimum wage in North Dakota is $7.25 per hour, which is same as the federal minimum wage.

Like overtime compensation, certain employees are exempt from minimum wage law. These employees include the following:

• Employees providing companionship services 
• Non-profit camp employees for youth-related and educational reasons 
• Cooks, guides, and camp tenders for fishing and hunting activities 
• Actors and movie extras 
• Student trainees 
• Babysitters working less than 24 hours a week for less than three consecutive weeks

North Dakota is an at-will employment state. This means employers have the legal right to terminate employees at any time and for any reason, provided it’s non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory.

North Dakota is also a right-to-work state. This means that employees in certain occupations may not be coerced to join labor unions and organizations. The law also prohibits employers from making union membership a condition of employment.

Employers conducting background checks  on the following types of employees must follow the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 

• Security officers at the state university
• School personnel with unsupervised contact with students
• Employees in adult family foster care facilities 
• Personnel in substance abuse treatment programs (who may have contact adolescents being treated in the facility) 

According to N.D. Cent. Code § 34-01-15, employers in North Dakota are also free to conduct drug tests as a precondition for employment. The only restriction is that they may not charge job applicants for conducting these drug tests but must bear the full cost.

North Dakota has Equal Employment Opportunity laws in place to protect employees from discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, age, disability, and more. 

North Dakota employees working in similar positions under the same employer must receive equal compensation regardless of gender. Men and women working similar positions in the same workplace must receive the same hourly wage or monthly salary.

Employees have a right to report their employers for unethical work practices or violating employment law. The law protects employees from retaliatory action or threats by employers for reporting violations and unethical practices.

Employers must provide workers’ compensation insurance for employees. This insurance covers work-related injuries and illnesses, protecting employees from out-of-pocket medical costs for workplace accidents that cause injuries or sickness.

Private employers in North Dakota don’t have to provide their employees with retirement plans. Like other states, private employers are barred from utilizing public retirement plans, but they can offer employees retirement options like 401(k)s, 403(b)s, IRAs, and traditional pension plans.