It’s good practice to periodically revisit recordkeeping requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Every employer covered by the FLSA must keep certain payroll records for each covered, nonexempt worker.
It’s in an employer’s best interest to keep as much detailed information as possible to demonstrate compliance with the FLSA’s provisions regarding minimum wage, overtime, equal pay and child labor.
At a minimum, each employer must retain:
- Payroll records, collective bargaining agreements, and sales and purchase records for at least three years.
- Records on which wage computations are based, such as timecards and time schedules, for two years.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) maintains rules for what is expected of employers in terms of record retention, and other agencies have their own requirements as well. These records must be open for inspection by the EEOC and may be kept at the place of employment or in a central records office.
MarathonHR’s current recommendation is to retain three years’ worth of payroll data and discard anything older than that because it becomes subject to discoverability.