Section 52-04-03 - Rates and base of contributions of wages paid by employer1. Subject to the exceptions and modifications provided for in this section and elsewhere in this chapter, each employer shall pay contributions to the fund equal to two and seven-tenths percent of wages paid by the employer to any one individual employee during a calendar year with respect to employment, which also includes service constituting employment under the employment security law of any other state as defined in the North Dakota unemployment compensation law or of the federal government. "Employment", as so inclusive, is applicable throughout to this chapter.2. The amount of an individual's wages paid to that individual in a calendar year by each employer and subject to tax may not be in excess of three thousand dollars for the years prior to 1968, nor in excess of three thousand three hundred dollars for 1968, nor in excess of three thousand four hundred dollars for 1969, nor in excess of three thousand eight hundred dollars for 1970, nor in excess of four thousand dollars for 1971, nor in excess of four thousand four hundred dollars for 1972, nor in excess of four thousand two hundred dollars for 1973, 1974, 1975, and 1976, nor in excess of four thousand three hundred dollars for 1977, and not in excess of six thousand dollars in 1978.3. For the year 1979 and each year thereafter, the amount of an individual's wages subject to tax, paid by each employer, must be in such amount as determined to be in an amount that is equal to seventy percent of a statewide average annual wage, rounded to the nearest one hundred dollars, determined by the bureau on or before each first day of October by the following computation: The total wages reported on contribution reports for the third and fourth quarters of the preceding calendar year and the first and second quarters of the current calendar year must be divided by the average monthly number of covered workers for the same four quarters, whose number must be determined by dividing by twelve the total covered employment reported on contribution reports for those quarters, and the quotient obtained by dividing the total wages by the average monthly number of covered workers is the statewide average annual wage.
4. Notwithstanding any of the provisions of subsection 3, the amount of an individual's wages subject to tax must always be at least equal to the amount that is subject to tax under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act [68A Stat. 439; 26 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.].