How Long Do You Keep Employee Records After Termination?

How long you keep employee records after termination depends on the record: EEOC personnel files come off the shelf after one year, most payroll and tax records after three to four, retirement plan filings after six, and OSHA toxic exposure records not for 30 years. There’s no single retention date that clears out a former employee’s file all at once. You purge document by document, and if a state law or a pending legal matter applies, you hold longer.

Retention Periods at a Glance

Personnel and employment records (EEOC): 1 year from termination
Time cards and work schedules (FLSA): 2 years
Payroll records (FLSA and ADEA): 3 years
FMLA leave records: 3 years
Employment tax records (IRS): 4 years after filing the fourth-quarter return
OSHA injury and illness logs: 5 years from the end of the calendar year
Form I-9: 3 years from hire date or 1 year from termination, whichever is later
Benefit plan reports (ERISA): at least 6 years after the filing date
Toxic exposure records (OSHA): 30 years after the employee’s last day
Signed contracts, NDAs, and separation agreements: indefinitely
Anything under a litigation hold: until the matter is fully resolved

Personnel and Termination Files

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act each require employers to keep personnel and employment records for one year. For an involuntary termination, the clock starts on the termination date.¹ This one-year rule covers job applications, performance reviews, promotion and demotion records, layoff notices, and the termination paperwork itself.²

There is a critical exception. If a discrimination charge has been filed with the EEOC, you must keep all records related to that charge until the matter is fully resolved, even after the one-year period has run.² Fully resolved means the deadline for filing a federal lawsuit has passed or, if suit was filed, the litigation has ended. Destroying records during an active investigation is where employers get into serious trouble.

Payroll and Wage Records

The Fair Labor Standards Act splits payroll retention into two tiers. Payroll records, collective bargaining agreements, and sales and purchase records must be preserved for at least three years from the date of the last entry.³ Time cards, work schedules, wage rate tables, and records of additions to or deductions from wages must be kept for at least two years.⁴

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act adds a parallel three-year rule. Payroll records showing each employee’s name, address, date of birth, occupation, rate of pay, and weekly compensation must be kept for three years.⁵ Date of birth is on that list because age discrimination claims turn on it.

Form I-9

Form I-9 retention is triggered by termination, so the math matters. Keep the completed form for three years after the date of hire or one year after the date employment ends, whichever is later. For someone who worked less than two years, that means three years from the hire date. For someone who worked longer than two years, it means one year after they stop working.⁶ While the employee is still on payroll, the form stays.

FMLA Leave Records

The Family and Medical Leave Act requires employers to keep records related to FMLA leave for three years. That covers leave requests, medical certifications, notices given to employees, records of any disputes about eligibility, and documentation of how leave was calculated. FMLA doesn’t prescribe a specific format, but the records need to be detailed enough to show the employer followed the law.

OSHA Records

OSHA sets some of the longest retention windows in federal employment law. Injury and illness logs (the OSHA 300 Log, the annual summary, and the 301 Incident Report forms) must be kept for five years following the end of the calendar year they cover.⁷

Records documenting employee exposure to toxic substances or harmful physical agents must be kept for at least 30 years after the employee’s last day of work.⁸ Occupational diseases like mesothelioma and chemical-related cancers can take decades to appear. If your business handles hazardous materials, this is the rule most likely to catch you off guard years after an employee is gone.

Employment Tax Records

The IRS requires employers to keep all employment tax records for at least four years after filing the fourth-quarter return for the year.⁹ That covers W-4s, wage payment records, tip income reports, and records tied to fringe benefits. Records supporting a claim for refund or credit must be kept for at least four years after the claim was filed.¹⁰ Records for qualified sick leave wages, qualified family leave wages taken after March 31, 2021, and the employee retention credit should be kept for at least six years.

Retirement and Benefit Plan Records

ERISA Section 107 requires anyone who files reports related to an employee benefit plan to keep copies of those reports and the underlying records for at least six years after the filing date.¹¹ Six years is the statutory floor. The IRS advises keeping retirement plan records until the plan has paid out all benefits and enough time has passed to close the audit window.¹²

Anything under a litigation hold. Any record related to a pending or reasonably anticipated legal matter must be preserved until the matter is fully and finally resolved. That includes documents tied to discrimination charges, workers’ compensation claims, government investigations, or active lawsuits. A routine records purge that destroys documents relevant to pending litigation can trigger sanctions far worse than the underlying claim.²

State Rules Can Extend the Federal Minimums

Federal law sets a floor, not a ceiling. Personnel file retention across the 50 states runs from one to six years post-termination, and some states require payroll records for up to six years compared with the three-year FLSA minimum. These extended timelines are often tied to the state’s statute of limitations for wage claims or employment lawsuits. State rules can also cover categories federal law doesn’t directly address, like final pay stubs, wage statements, and workers’ compensation files.

When federal and state law require the same document for different lengths of time, follow the longer period. If federal law requires payroll records for three years and your state requires five, dumping them at three satisfies the FLSA but violates state law. Employers operating in multiple states should check with each state’s Department of Labor or employment counsel rather than relying on a single federal checklist.

What Happens If You Destroy Records Too Early

OSHA penalties for recordkeeping violations can reach $16,550 per violation for serious infractions, and up to $165,514 per violation for willful or repeated failures.¹⁴ I-9 paperwork violations carry penalties in the hundreds to thousands of dollars per form, which multiplies quickly across a workforce.

The litigation consequences can be worse than the fines. If an employer destroys records after a discrimination charge is filed or when litigation is reasonably foreseeable, a court or administrative judge can draw an adverse inference, essentially instructing the factfinder to assume the missing records would have hurt the employer.¹⁵ In some cases the decision-maker can rule on the disputed facts entirely in favor of the opposing party. That can turn a defensible case into a loss.

Disposing of Records When the Time Is Up

When a retention period finally expires, throwing the file in the trash isn’t an option if it contains sensitive employee information. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act requires anyone who maintains consumer information for a business purpose to dispose of it using reasonable measures to prevent unauthorized access.¹⁶ Background check reports and credit reports used in hiring fall under this rule.

For paper, that means shredding, burning, or pulverizing so the information can’t be reconstructed. For electronic records, deleting files isn’t enough because deleted data can often be recovered. Use a wipe utility that overwrites the entire drive.¹⁷ If you’re disposing of a digital copier that processed personnel documents, have the hard drive removed and destroyed or overwritten.

Many employers outsource destruction to certified vendors. If you do, get a written contract specifying the destruction methods and monitor the vendor’s compliance. The legal obligation to dispose of records properly stays with the employer no matter who performs the physical destruction.¹⁶

1
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Recordkeeping Requirements
2
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Summary of Selected Recordkeeping Obligations in 29 CFR Part 1602
3
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 516 – Records to Be Kept by Employers
4
eCFR. 29 CFR 516.6 – Records to Be Preserved 2 Years
5
eCFR. 29 CFR 1627.3 – Records to Be Kept by Employers
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 10.0 Retaining Form I-9
7
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 1904.33 – Retention and Updating
8
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 1910.1020 – Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records
9
Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Recordkeeping
10
eCFR. 26 CFR 31.6001-1 – Records in General
11
Department of Labor (DOL). ERISA Advisory Council Written Statement – Recordkeeping in the Electronic Age
12
Internal Revenue Service. Maintaining Your Retirement Plan Records
14
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA Penalties
15
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Chapter 6 – Development of Impartial and Appropriate Factual Records
16
eCFR. Part 682 – Disposal of Consumer Report Information and Records
17
Federal Trade Commission. Protecting Personal Information – A Guide for Business