# North Carolina — Workers' compensation waiting periods and retroactive thresholds by US state

For North Carolina, waiting period (days) is 7 days; retroactive trigger (days) is 21 days; how days are counted is Calendar days. No compensation is due for the first seven days of lost time from work. Payment for days 1-7 is due only if the employee's disability has continued beyond 21 days; statute or rule citation is N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-28, recorded from its source on 2026-08-17.

- **State:** North Carolina _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Waiting period (days):** 7 days _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Retroactive trigger (days):** 21 days _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **How days are counted:** Calendar days. No compensation is due for the first seven days of lost time from work. Payment for days 1-7 is due only if the employee's disability has continued beyond 21 days. _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Statute or rule citation:** N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-28 _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_

## What the source says

> no compensation is due for the first seven days of lost time from work, unless the disability exceeds 21 days. Therefore, the first workers’ compensation disability payment issued to the employee by the employer or carrier will not include any workers’ compensation disability payments for days 1-7. Payment for days 1-7 will be due only if the employee’s disability has continued beyond 21 days.

## Source

- https://www.ic.nc.gov/faqs

Last verified: 2026-08-17. Review by: 2027-08-17.
Part of [Workers' compensation waiting periods and retroactive thresholds by US state](https://referencesource.org/wc-waiting-periods-by-state/).