What is an North Carolina Employer of Record?

North Carolina has a large and powerful economy that many investors would be happy to enter. A North Carolina Employer of Record or EOR can help them do just that if they haven’t already incorporated an entity in the state.

Instead, the EOR will use its own registered entity to enter into contracts with local employees. It hires them on behalf of its clients and also takes care of their HR needs like payroll, benefits administration, and leave management over the long term. Because the EOR becomes the full legal employer of the local employees in North Carolina, it takes on the responsibility of paying their withheld taxes and deducting social security contributions from the authorities. It also uses its experience and expertise to maintain this employment arrangement in full compliance with all local, state, and federal labor laws.

North Carolina EOR

With a Gross State Product (GSP) that reached $637.6 billion at the end of 2024, North Carolina’s economy is bigger than most countries’ GDPs. If it were its own country, it would be the 24th-largest GDP in the world just lower than Sweden and higher than Argentina. At the end of 2024, the state’s unemployment rate was only 3.7% of its total labor force of over five million workers. North Carolina has also begun phasing out its state corporate income tax, which will decrease from 2.5% in 2025 to 0% in 2029. Combining that favorable environment with the state’s Research Triangle, home to the largest research park in the US, and numerous tech hubs located here, North Carolina is an incredibly attractive place to do business.

In this guide, you’ll see how a North Carolina EOR can help you hire workers and get started in this market quickly and efficiently.

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What Is the Difference Between a North Carolina EOR and a North Carolina PEO?

If you’re looking into engaging a service provider to help you hire and manage HR for your staff in North Carolina, you might want to consider an EOR or a PEO (Professional Employment Organization). The main difference between these two types of providers is that while an EOR will hire employees on your behalf, a PEO won’t. EORs contract employees directly using their own legally registered entities in the US. This is very useful for international and even out-of-state employers that want a provider to act as the full legal employer of their North Carolinian employees. 

In contrast, a PEO follows a co-employment model when it works with local employees. Instead of the PEO hiring the employees, they’re employed directly by the client. However, the PEO takes on certain responsibilities like paying their wages and remitting their tax and social security contributions. PEOs run payroll and administer mandatory benefits on behalf of their clients. In North Carolina, which has a state personal income tax rate of 4.25% in 2025, this entails withholding both state and federal taxes and then paying them on to the North Carolina Department of Revenue and the IRS. Working with a North Carolina PEO can be an excellent choice for organizations that already have an entity in the US or even in North Carolina but need help managing HR for their local employees. This service can allow companies to be agile and streamlined by outsourcing their HR needs to experts in the state. 

It’s important to note that PEOs are required to register with the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI). They need to obtain a PEO License, which must be renewed each year and must also file notice if worker’s compensation or health benefit plans for employees change. 

Ready to get started with an North Carolina EOR?

Let us handle the complexities of hiring, compliance, and payroll in North Carolina while you focus on growing your team.

  • Hire employees in North Carolina with a North Carolina EOR
  • No local entity is needed
  • Pricing starts at USD 199 per employee
  • Remote People can also help you find the best talent in North Carolina

👉 Get Your Customized North Carolina EOR Proposal Today!

Best 5 Employers of Record in North Carolina

There are plenty of EORs that offer their services in North Carolina, but they’re not all the same. If you’re looking for a reputable EOR with a service you can depend on, we recommend these top five EORs in the state:

1

Horizons

Horizons Employer of Record (EOR)

Core Features

  • Helps you hire employees and contractors in 180+ countries
  • Has recruiting services in North Carolina and internationally
  • Takes care of mandatory and optional employee benefits
  • Employs legal, HR, and tax experts for consultations and advice

Pricing Model

Horizons charges $499/employee/month in US states

Pros and Cons

Horizons is one of the most affordable professional EOR service providers on the market. Its services are based around an online cloud-based platform that acts as a complete HRIS (human resources information system) and allows you to manage all your employees’ concerns in one place. While there are no mandatory state benefits in North Carolina aside from workers’ compensation insurance, Horizons still manages federally mandated benefits like Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance. It can also administer private health care and pension programs if clients desire.

On the other hand, Horizons doesn’t include a mobile app to help employees access its platform. It also doesn’t offer separate global payroll services for companies with entities around the world.

Verdict

Horizons is an affordable service provider that helps you manage all of your North Carolina workers through one comprehensive, straightforward platform.

2

Remote

Remote homepage

Core Features

  • Hires employees in over 70 countries and helps manage contractors in over 180
  • Provides mandatory and optional benefit administration
  • Offers recruitment tools to help clients source their own talent
  • Has a comprehensive platform that includes time and attendance features

Pricing Model

Starting at $599/month per employee 

Pros and Cons

Similar to Horizons, Remote provides its clients with a comprehensive online platform that allows them to access it and manage their employees from anywhere. It also provides benefits administration for additional benefits that employers may want to offer their employees like health insurance and retirement savings.

While Remote has AI-powered tools to help clients recruit on their own, it doesn’t provide active recruitment services. Its platform can also be challenging to implement and start using for some administrators.

Verdict

Remote has adopted AI technology to help its clients source their own talent and it can successfully hire these employees for them in North Carolina. 

3

Deel

Deel homepage

Core Features

  • Hires employees and contractors in over 150 countries 
  • Offers separate payroll service in 100+ countries for clients who own entities globally
  • Features a mobile app for employees and has time-tracking built into its platform

Pricing Model

The EOR plan is priced at $599 per full-time employee per month.

Pros and Cons

Deel hires employees in North Carolina on behalf of its clients for the same starting price as Remote. Working with employees and contractors in more than 150 countries and all 50 US states, this provider is known for helping clients new to employee management by offering them HR and legal advice.

However, Deel doesn’t have any self-help tools or active services for recruitment, which means clients have to source talent themselves. It also doesn’t provide benefits packages to help clients offer additional pensions or health insurance. 

Verdict

For clients who are able to source talent on their own, Deel can be a good choice for EOR services complete with expert advice and support.

4

Papaya Global

Papaya Global homepage

Core Features

  • Works in over 160 countries to provide EOR, contractor management, and global payroll services
  • Supports mobile employees with immigration and relocation services
  • Administers both mandatory and optional employee benefits for clients

Pricing Model

For full-time employees, the EOR service begins at $599 per month.

Pros and Cons

Like Remote and Deel, Papaya Global offers EOR services for the starting price of $599/employee per month in the United States. Its relatively simple platform is easy to use though it lacks some of the features that complete HRISs have, like recruitment and performance management tools. Papaya Global also doesn’t offer active recruiting. However, it includes time and attendance tracking features and a convenient mobile app to help employees self-manage their benefits and leave requests.

Verdict

Clients who can source their own talent and want to let employees have a lot of access to their profiles and perform resource-saving self-admin can find a good deal with Papaya Global.

5

Globalization Partners

Globalization Partners homepage

Core Features

  • Helps clients hire both employees and independent contractors in over 180 countries
  • Provides optional add-on packages for AI-powered advice or human expert consulting
  • The platform includes time and attendance features for convenient payroll processing

Pricing Model

No pricing is publicly available online

Pros and Cons

Similar to Deel, G-P doesn’t provide clients with any recruitment services or tools to help them perform this function on their own. It does, however, manage the administration of both mandatory and optional benefits for its clients. For those employers unfamiliar with managing HR and employee tax obligations, this provider offers add-on consulting and advice packages that connect clients with AI or human experts. G-P’s pricing structure isn’t publicly available so potential clients will need to ask for tailored quotes before they can adequately compare this provider’s offerings with others.

Verdict

Globalization Partners makes expansion more straightforward by offering a platform that covers everything from payroll to compliance across multiple countries. While the pricing structure could be more transparent, the exceptional customer support and seamless integrations make G-P a valuable tool for businesses looking to expand.

How Does a North Carolina EOR Work?

If you’ve never worked with an EOR to hire employees in another jurisdiction before, the process may feel quite unfamiliar. This is how partnering with a North Carolina EOR normally proceeds:

Source Your Employees

You may be looking at working with an EOR because you’ve already found North Carolina workers who you want to employ. Otherwise, you’ll need to locate workers who will be a good fit for your company. You can either work with a recruitment agency to help you source talent or use the recruitment tools and services provided by an EOR.

Select an EOR Service Provider

Look through your options and choose the EOR you’d most like to partner with, you can engage it by asking it to help you find workers or giving it the names of potential employees you’ve already sourced.

Negotiate Contracts

Your EOR partner will take the names of these candidates and negotiate terms for working conditions, benefits, and salaries with them on your behalf. It will work these terms into employment contracts that are fully compliant with all local, state, and federal labor laws.

Hire Staff

As their full legal employer in North Carolina, it will then enter into these contracts with your employees to officially hire them.

Onboard

The EOR will perform the administrative tasks to bring the new employees on board with its management platform. This includes collecting their personal information and documents, adding them to your payroll, and registering them with tax and social security authorities. You’ll also need to onboard them to your company by providing orientation, training, access to tools and data, and helping them get to know their colleagues.

Manage Payroll, Taxes, and Benefits

You’ll collect time and attendance data and either submit timesheets to the EOR or input this data directly into its time-tracking feature. With this data, the EOR can manage payroll, calculating salaries to be paid, taxes to be withheld, and benefits contributions to be deducted. It will pay your workers and remit these other important fees to the appropriate authorities.

Maintain Compliance

Because you still manage the employees’ schedules, tasks, and working relationships, you also have a role to play in compliance. North Carolina has anti-discrimination laws and other workplace statutes that you’ll need to follow. However, the bulk of the responsibility for compliance lies with the EOR. It needs to ensure the worker’s employment follows all state and federal laws and also reports to the IRS and the North Carolina Department of Revenue on your behalf.

Terminate Workers

When the time comes that you need to terminate workers’ contracts, the EOR is the party responsible for doing so. While notice periods and severance aren’t required in North Carolina, these will still be provided by the EOR if they were written into employment contracts.

What Labor Laws Apply to Hiring in North Carolina?

North Carolina, like all states, has its own state and local laws that must be adhered to by employers as well as federal laws. The state matches the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour except for tipped employees, who can be paid $2.13/hour as long as their tips bring their total wages up to the minimum wage.

Overtime hours are paid at time-and-a-half and are not limited to adult employees, while youth employees (ages 14-15) may only work 18 hours per week. Adult employees are not entitled to breaks though workers under 16 must be given a 30-minute meal break after working five hours. Employers are not required by state law to provide wage benefits like annual leave, sick pay, or paid public holidays though these are usually offered by employers who want to stay competitive.

North Carolina is an at-will employment state which means that employers and employees may terminate contracts at any time and for any reason, though two weeks’ notice is considered a professional courtesy here. Parents who’ve logged 1,250 hours in the past 12 months and have been employed by the same employer for at least 12 months are entitled to 12 weeks of paid family leave for life-changing events.

North Carolinians have the right to work for any employer despite their union status and can’t be compelled to be part of a labor organization. It’s also important to know that Charlotte, Raleigh, and other North Carolinian cities have passed ordinances prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, age, disability, and other factors.

What Are the Benefits of a North Carolina EOR?

The pros of working with a North Carolina EOR include:

  • Streamlined expansion into a growing tech and business market
  • Reduced risk and complexity in legal compliance
  • Affordable cost of living and related wages
  • Few mandatory benefits that must be provided for employees

What are the Downsides of a North Carolina EOR

At the same time, there are cons to working with an EOR in North Carolina, including:

  • Recurring costs for EOR services can accumulate
  • Limited direct control over employee relations and HR processes
  • Difficulty sharing company culture with EOR employees
  • Level of service can affect employee satisfaction

How to Choose a North Carolina EOR

There are enough EORs offering services in North Carolina that it can be a real challenge to select one that will be a great partner. To help you find prime candidates, we suggest that you consider the following criteria. 

Price

Before even looking for a provider, determine your hiring needs and set a budget accordingly. After that, look for an affordable EOR and ensure that you receive a full, transparent quote before engaging its services.

Experience

Verify that an EOR has experience hiring in North Carolina by asking it directly for success stories or looking online to find ratings and reviews.

Support

Look for extensive hours, communication methods (live chat, phone, email), and great service reviews to prove that an EOR offers the high quality of service you require.

Services

Decide on the services you want to avail yourself of, like recruitment and additional benefits administration, and make sure your EOR candidates have all of these on offer.

Engage a North Carolina Employer of Record

When you’ve selected the service provider you want to partner with, you can engage it by requesting a client contract with your EOR. This contract should include the scope of the EOR’s services, definitions of its and your responsibilities, and of course, a breakdown of its fees. Once this is agreed upon, you’ll likely be introduced to a customer success manager (CSM) or another contact who will manage your case. This person will typically introduce you to the EOR’s platform, connect you with candidates if necessary, and coordinate HR services for your employees. They’ll also be your go-to contact for questions related to compliance, fee payments, and your employees’ needs.

Engage Remote People as an EOR Broker

North Carolina’s healthy economy is powered by a dynamic tech sector that has attracted many of the best and brightest to this state. If you need help to connect you with the right EOR for your needs, reach out to Remote People today to access tailored brokerage services. This highly experienced broker can help you get North Carolinians on your team in no time.

To get the best deal on your North Carolina EOR service, consider the Remote People EOR broker service, through which can find you the best price for your North Carolina hiring.