About Rhode Island Payroll Guide

Who We Are

This guide was created by the team at Pacific Data Services (PDS), Hawaii’s most trusted payroll and bookkeeping firm since 1969. We’ve processed payroll for thousands of small businesses across the country and built these state guides to share what we’ve learned — the rules, the deadlines, the mistakes we see businesses make, and the tools that actually work.

We are not a directory. We are not a content farm. We are payroll professionals who have been doing this for over 55 years, and every guide on this site reflects that experience.

Why This Site Exists

We built Rhode Island Payroll Guide because small business owners deserve accurate payroll information, not confusing government PDFs or generic articles that don’t address Rhode Island-specific rules.

Every state has its own tax rates, filing deadlines, agency portals, and compliance requirements. Rhode Island’s graduated 3.75%–5.99% income tax, combined with SUI obligations on the first $29,200 of wages, creates a compliance landscape that demands attention to detail.

We built these guides to give Rhode Island employers a clear, practical resource — the kind of information we wish every new business owner had access to from day one.

What We Cover

• Rhode Island payroll taxes (graduated 3.75%–5.99% state income tax, SUI)
• Employer registration with Rhode Island Division of Taxation and Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training
• SUI rates, wage bases, and experience rating
• Minimum wage ($15.00/hr) and labor law compliance
• Payday laws, final pay requirements, and pay stub rules
• Federal payroll tax basics (FICA, FUTA, withholding)
• Payroll software comparisons for Rhode Island businesses

Our Approach

Every sentence must earn its place. If it doesn’t inform, warn, or guide the reader, we cut it. Payroll professionals don’t waste words — and neither do we.

Every article includes real numbers (actual tax rates, actual deadlines, actual penalties), links to official Rhode Island state agency pages, and practical “from the payroll desk” insights based on what we see in real-world payroll processing.

Affiliate Disclosure

Rhode Island Payroll Guide contains affiliate links. We recommend payroll software products like Gusto, Paychex, and QuickBooks Payroll and may earn a referral fee when you sign up through our links. This doesn’t affect our editorial coverage or the accuracy of our guides.

We recommend these products because we believe they’re genuinely useful for Rhode Island small businesses. If a product didn’t meet our standards, we wouldn’t recommend it — period.

Questions?

For payroll questions beyond what our guides cover, we encourage you to consult a qualified Rhode Island CPA or employment attorney. For questions about our content or to report an error, visit our contact page.

For direct payroll services, visit Pacific Data Services.