New Guidance From NC Commerce On Remote Workers Under JDIG Program

Nearly two and one-half years after COVID-19 first sent people home to work, many of us continue to work from home in some form or fashion. It's clear that there has been a permanent shift in how many of us work and where we work, especially for those with office jobs.

A clear illustration of this is the recent announcement by health insurance giant Centene that it had scrapped its plans, midway through construction, for a new $1 billion, 3,200-job East Coast headquarters in Charlotte. Company officials cited how "more people prefer working from home or in a hybrid situation" as the primary factor for that decision.

These new, hybrid work-from-home arrangements have raised questions about how these employees will be treated for incentive purposes by the state, especially under its flagship Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) program. Recently, the North Carolina Department of Commerce put that to bed by issuing guidance on remote workers – guidance that