# North Carolina — State employment law headcount triggers that deviate from federal thresholds

For North Carolina, law category is workers compensation; state threshold is 3 or more; key differences is Officers may waive their own coverage but still count toward the three-employee rule. Truck drivers must be covered even if treated as owner-operators. Agricultural employers are exempt unless they have 10 or more full-time, non-seasonal workers. Directly employed domestic servants are exempt; coverage / scope is Includes all employees, recorded from its source on 2026-08-14.

- **State:** North Carolina _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Law category:** workers compensation _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **State threshold:** 3 or more _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Key differences:** Officers may waive their own coverage but still count toward the three-employee rule. Truck drivers must be covered even if treated as owner-operators. Agricultural employers are exempt unless they have 10 or more full-time, non-seasonal workers. Directly employed domestic servants are exempt. _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Coverage / scope:** Includes all employees. _(verified: appears in the quote below)_

## What the source says

> North Carolina | 3 or more | Includes all employees. | Officers may waive their own coverage but still count toward the three-employee rule. Truck drivers must be covered even if treated as owner-operators. Agricultural employers are exempt unless they have 10 or more full-time, non-seasonal workers. Directly employed domestic servants are exempt.

## Source

- https://www.workcompone.com/blog/minimum-number-of-employees-for-workers-comp-in-every-u-s-state/

Last verified: 2026-08-14. Review by: 2027-02-10.
Part of [State employment law headcount triggers that deviate from federal thresholds](https://referencesource.org/state-employment-law-headcount-triggers/).