North Carolina law requires any business with three or more employees (including owners working in the business) to carry workers compensation insurance. Until recently, there wasn’t much penalty to employers who scoffed at this law.

As documented in the Raleigh News & Observer today, the NC Industrial Commission (which implements the workers comp system) is bringing non-compliant business owners to court to pay for employee on-the-job injuries and setting up procedures to jail those who still do not or cannot pay.