Federal employment record retention requirements set minimum periods that range from one year for basic hiring records to thirty years for toxic substance exposure files, with each category governed by its own statute. There is no single timeline that covers a personnel file as a whole. Tax records, payroll data, I-9 forms, discrimination-related documents, benefit plan records, and safety logs each run on separate clocks, and many states impose longer periods on top of the federal floor.
Federal Retention Periods at a Glance
- Employment tax records: 4 years
- FLSA payroll records: 3 years; supporting timecards and schedules: 2 years
- Form I-9: 3 years after hire or 1 year after separation, whichever is later
- Hiring and personnel action records (Title VII, ADA, GINA, PWFA, ADEA): 1 year; 2 years for larger federal contractors
- FMLA records: 3 years
- ERISA plan filing support: 6 years; benefit-determination records: indefinite
- OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301: 5 years
- Toxic substance exposure records: 30 years; related medical records: duration of employment plus 30 years
Employment Tax Records: Four Years
The IRS requires you to keep employment tax records for at least four years after the date the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later. That includes employee names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of employment, wage payments, tax withholdings, and records of deposits made to the IRS. The same four-year floor applies to records supporting Form 1099-NEC filings for independent contractors.1Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records
Wage and Hour Records: Three Years and Two Years
The Fair Labor Standards Act splits its recordkeeping into two tiers. Basic payroll records for every non-exempt employee must be kept for at least three years: name, occupation, pay rate, hours worked each day and each workweek, straight-time earnings, overtime pay, deductions, and total wages paid per pay period.
Supporting records get a shorter period of two years from the date of last entry or last effective date.2eCFR. 29 CFR 516.6 – Records to Be Preserved 2 Years That category covers timecards, daily start-and-stop-time records, wage rate tables, and work schedules. Primary pay data survives longer for wage claims and audits; the backup documentation that feeds into those calculations can cycle out sooner. If an employee later claims unpaid overtime and you cannot produce the timekeeping records, the burden of proof effectively shifts to you.
Form I-9: Three Years After Hire or One Year After Separation
Every employer must complete and retain a Form I-9 for each person hired. Keep the form for three years after the date of hire, or one year after employment ends, whichever date is later. For someone who leaves within two years of hire, the three-year-from-hire figure controls. For someone who stays two years or longer, the one-year-after-separation figure controls.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 10.0 Retaining Form I-9
Paperwork violations for incomplete, missing, or improperly retained I-9 forms carry civil fines per form, adjusted annually for inflation. Pattern-or-practice violations can lead to criminal penalties.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Penalties
Hiring and Personnel Action Records: One Year
Federal anti-discrimination laws require employers to preserve records related to hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer, pay, and termination for at least one year from when the record was created or the personnel action was taken, whichever is later. When an employee is involuntarily terminated, records for that individual must be kept for one year from the separation date.5eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1602 – Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements Under Title VII, the ADA, GINA, and the PWFA
These requirements flow from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.5eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1602 – Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements Under Title VII, the ADA, GINA, and the PWFA The Age Discrimination in Employment Act imposes parallel recordkeeping obligations under a separate regulation.6eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1627 – Records to Be Made or Kept Relating to Age Covered documents include job postings, applications, resumes, interview notes, pre-employment test results, and internal records about promotions or transfers.
Federal Contractors: Two Years
If your company holds a federal contract of at least $150,000 and has 150 or more employees, the retention period doubles to two years from the date of the record or the personnel action. Smaller contractors, or those with contracts below the $150,000 threshold, follow the standard one-year period.7eCFR. 41 CFR 60-1.12 – Record Retention
If the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has initiated a compliance evaluation, you must keep all relevant records until OFCCP issues a final disposition, even if the normal retention period would have expired. Destroying records during an open evaluation can create a legal presumption that the missing information would have been unfavorable to you.7eCFR. 41 CFR 60-1.12 – Record Retention
EEOC Charges Freeze the Clock
Once an employee or applicant files a charge of discrimination with the EEOC, the employer must preserve all personnel records relevant to that charge until final disposition. Relevant records is read broadly: it includes the complaining employee’s file, records for other employees in similar positions, and application materials from competing candidates for the same role. Final disposition means either the deadline for filing a lawsuit expires without one being filed, or any resulting litigation reaches a conclusion.8GovInfo. 29 CFR 1602.14 – Preservation of Records
An employee has up to 300 days to file an EEOC charge in most jurisdictions, so destroying termination records at the one-year mark can leave you exposed to a charge that arrives shortly after.
FMLA and Medical Files: Three Years, Separately Stored
Employers covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act must retain FMLA-related records for at least three years. Required records include leave requests, leave dates designated as FMLA leave, hours of leave taken in increments of less than a full day, copies of employee and employer notices, benefit plan documents, premium payment records, and documentation of any disputes about leave designation.9eCFR. 29 CFR 825.500 – Recordkeeping Requirements
The Americans with Disabilities Act adds a storage requirement that operates alongside the retention rule: medical information must be kept in files physically or digitally separate from standard personnel folders. Access is limited to supervisors who need to know about work restrictions or accommodations and to safety personnel who may need the information for emergency treatment. The confidentiality obligation applies regardless of which statute generated the medical record.
ERISA Benefit Plan Records: Six Years and Longer
If you sponsor a retirement plan, health plan, or other employee welfare benefit plan, ERISA imposes the longest routine retention period most employers will encounter. Records used to support required plan filings must be kept for at least six years after the filing date of the documents they support.10U.S. Department of Labor. Recordkeeping in the Electronic Age – ERISA Advisory Council Written Statement That covers Form 5500 annual reports, nondiscrimination testing results, employee communications, financial statements, and fidelity bond documentation.11U.S. Department of Labor. Recordkeeping in the Electronic Age – ERISA Advisory Council Written Statement
ERISA also requires employers to maintain records sufficient to determine the benefits due to each employee.10U.S. Department of Labor. Recordkeeping in the Electronic Age – ERISA Advisory Council Written Statement That includes participant personal data, employment dates, compensation history, plan entry dates, deferral elections, contribution amounts, investment elections, and distribution records. The statute puts no hard time limit on benefit-determination records, so in practice you should keep them for as long as a participant or beneficiary could conceivably make a claim. For a defined benefit pension plan, that can extend well past retirement.
OSHA Injury and Illness Records: Five Years
Employers with more than ten employees during the previous calendar year must keep OSHA injury and illness records, unless the business falls within a partially exempt industry classification.12Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 29 CFR 1904.1 – Partial Exemption for Employers With 10 or Fewer Employees Three forms are required:
- Form 300 Log, a running record of each work-related injury or illness
- Form 300A Annual Summary, posted in a visible workplace location
- Form 301 Incident Report, a detailed report for each case on the log
All three must be retained for five years following the end of the calendar year they cover.13eCFR. 29 CFR 1904.33 – Retention and Updating of Records Current and former employees, their personal representatives, and authorized union representatives have the right to access these logs. An employer must provide a copy of the Form 300 Log by the end of the next business day after a request.14Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 29 CFR 1904.35 – Employee Involvement
Toxic Substance Exposure: Thirty Years
Records involving toxic substance exposure sit in a different category. Employee exposure records must be kept for at least thirty years. Employee medical records related to such exposure must be preserved for the duration of employment plus thirty years.15Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 29 CFR 1910.1020 – Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records
A few narrow exceptions apply. Background lab data supporting environmental monitoring can be kept for just one year, provided the sampling results and methodology summaries are retained for the full thirty. Medical records for employees who worked less than a year do not need to be kept past employment, provided the records are given to the employee at termination.15Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 29 CFR 1910.1020 – Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records
Storage Format and Secure Disposal
No federal law requires a particular storage format. Paper files, electronic records, or a hybrid system all work, as long as the records are retrievable and readable when an auditor or enforcement agency asks for them.
Once a retention period expires, disposal has its own rules. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act Disposal Rule requires anyone who possesses consumer information for a business purpose to take reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access when disposing of it.16eCFR. 16 CFR Part 682 – Disposal of Consumer Report Information and Records For paper records, that means shredding, pulverizing, or burning. For electronic files, it means permanent deletion or physical destruction of the storage media. The rule applies to information obtained from consumer reports, such as background check results used during hiring, not to every piece of employee data in your files.
The disposal rule does not require you to destroy records at any particular time and does not create its own retention period.16eCFR. 16 CFR Part 682 – Disposal of Consumer Report Information and Records When you do dispose of covered information, you must do it securely. Many employers retain records beyond the federal minimum as a precaution against late-filed claims or litigation holds that have not yet been formally triggered.