E-Verify requirements in Nebraska: every public employer and public contractor, with no dollar threshold

As of October 2026, Nebraska requires E-Verify from two groups: every public employer, meaning every state agency and political subdivision, and every public contractor, meaning any contractor or subcontractor awarded a contract by a public employer for the physical performance of services in Nebraska. Both rules come from one 2009 statute, Neb. Rev. Stat. 4-114, and neither has a dollar threshold or a headcount threshold. Private employers with no public contract are not covered, and the 2025 bill that would have changed that did not pass.

The lack of any threshold is what catches people out. A two-person landscaping company that mows a village park under a written contract is, on the statute's own words, a public contractor.

What section 4-114 says

The statute also told the Nebraska Department of Labor to promote voluntary E-Verify use among private employers for two years after October 1, 2009 and to report to the Legislature by December 1, 2011. That outreach duty has run its course; it never became a private-employer requirement.

Three phrases that decide coverage

"Physical performance of services"

The trigger is a contract for services physically performed in Nebraska. A contract to deliver goods, such as selling office furniture to a county, is not a services contract. A contract to install that furniture probably is. Mixed contracts are the hard case; if a contract has a meaningful on-site services component, assume the statute applies and ask the public employer how it reads it.

"Contractor or his or her subcontractor"

Subcontractors are named in the definition, so the duty runs down the chain. The statute does not say how many tiers, and it does not require the prime contractor to collect certifications the way some states do. Many public employers write that into their contracts anyway, and a prime contractor has an obvious interest in asking.

"New employees physically performing services within the State of Nebraska"

The duty is about new hires, and specifically new hires working in Nebraska. It is not limited to people assigned to the public contract. Combined with E-Verify's own rule that an enrolled hiring site verifies every new hire at that site, a Nebraska public contractor should expect to run all of its Nebraska new hires through E-Verify for as long as it holds public work.

Edge cases contractors ask about

Employees who work outside Nebraska

The statute covers new employees physically performing services within Nebraska. A public contractor headquartered in Omaha that hires a remote accountant living in Iowa is not required by 4-114 to verify that person, though if the Iowa hire is made through an enrolled hiring site, E-Verify's own rules still call for a case. Iowa's law, not Nebraska's, governs whether Iowa adds anything.

Renewals of pre-2009 contracts

The exclusion covers contracts awarded before October 1, 2009. A long-running contract that is re-awarded or substantially renegotiated is a new award in most procurement systems, which would bring it inside the statute. Treat any renewal signed after that date as covered unless the public employer tells you otherwise in writing.

Small or informal purchases

The statute speaks of a contract awarded by a public employer, without excluding small purchases or purchase orders. Whether a one-off service call paid on a purchase order counts is not answered in the text. A contractor that does regular small jobs for public entities is better off enrolling than arguing the point job by job.

Political subdivisions as employers

Cities, villages, counties, school districts and other local bodies are political subdivisions, so they must use E-Verify for their own new hires, not only require it of contractors. HR teams at smaller subdivisions sometimes assume the rule is for state agencies alone; it is not.

Public employers' own hiring

Every state agency, city, county, school district and other political subdivision must use E-Verify for its new employees working in Nebraska. Separately, Neb. Rev. Stat. 4-108 bars public employees from participating in a public retirement system unless they are U.S. citizens or lawfully present, and requires the employing agency or subdivision and the employee to maintain at least one approved identification document and produce it on request of the Public Employees Retirement Board. That list, which the Legislature amended again in 2026, is a retirement rule, not a substitute for Form I-9 or E-Verify; a public employer needs all three.

Penalties

Section 4-114 contains no fine, license sanction or debarment provision. Enforcement runs through the mandatory contract clause: a contractor that does not register and use E-Verify is in breach, and the public employer can use whatever remedies its contract and procurement rules give it, such as termination or refusing future awards. Federal penalties for knowingly employing unauthorized workers or for Form I-9 errors apply on their own terms; see I-9 penalties.

The private-employer bill that did not pass

LB 532, introduced in January 2025 by Senator Kathleen Kauth, would have required businesses with at least 25 employees to use E-Verify for new hires starting January 1, 2026, directed the Department of Labor to run random compliance audits, and allowed suspension of an employer's licenses for violations. It was designated a priority bill and advanced to General File with amendments in 2025, carried over into the 2026 session, and was not enacted. Section 4-114 is unchanged. If a version returns, the 25-employee line in LB 532 is the number to watch.

Staffing agencies and public work in Nebraska

• Supplying temps to a public employer: the agency is a public contractor if it has a services contract with the agency, city or school district, and a subcontractor if it supplies a contractor that does. Either way it must use E-Verify for its Nebraska new hires.
• Supplying temps to private clients only: no Nebraska E-Verify duty, though an agency that already enrolled its Nebraska branch for public clients will verify everyone hired through that branch.
• Who creates the case: the employer of record that completes Form I-9. See E-Verify for staffing agencies.
• Neighbors: Missouri requires E-Verify on public contracts over $5,000; see E-Verify requirements in Missouri. Workers crossing the state line follow the rules of the state where they work.

A worked example

This is an invented example. A Lincoln janitorial company with 12 employees has only private clients until it wins a one-year cleaning contract with a public school district. From the award, it is a public contractor under 4-114. The district's contract includes the required E-Verify clause. The company enrolls, and from then on every new hire at its Lincoln hiring site is verified within three business days of starting work, including cleaners assigned to private office buildings. Its eight existing employees are not re-run; E-Verify is for new hires, outside the federal contractor rules. When the district contract ends, the company may keep using E-Verify or end its participation through the E-Verify system.

A Nebraska checklist

• Any services contract with a Nebraska public entity, at any value: enroll in E-Verify before work begins.
• Subcontracting on public work: you are covered too; confirm enrollment before your people start.
• Verify all new hires physically working in Nebraska at enrolled sites, after Form I-9 is complete; see I-9 timing in hiring.
• Public employers: E-Verify for new hires, plus the approved identification document under 4-108 for retirement system participants.
• Private employers with no public work: Form I-9 only, unless a federal contract adds FAR 52.222-54.
• Check other states in E-Verify requirements by state.