If you employ any staff members, it’s important for you to have access to the required Work Rights information to post somewhere in your workplace. Many businesses are not aware of both the required Employee Posting requirements and also the rationale behind why both State and Federal governments have mandated these postings be available for employees, as well as what will happen if these postings aren’t available for employees. We would like to take this opportunity to give you a basic overview of what all businesses need to know regarding posting requirements.
Understanding Labor Law Posters
Labor law posters are required by law and provide employees with a clear understanding of their rights and obligations as they relate to Labor Law and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Legal posters are required for every business, and are the most effective way to communicate complicated legal information to all employees at one time, rather than requiring each employee to read through multiple lengthy documents.
Legal posters provide the same information in a format that is easily readable, to provide all employees with information about labor laws and employee rights. Employers are required to post these legal posters in areas where employees will have access to them, such as breakrooms, hallways, or other common areas.
The Core Federal Posters Required
Every employer with at least one employee must display specific federal postings. These include:
- Federal Minimum Wage Poster: This displays the current federal minimum wage and basic wage and hour information. Even if your state’s minimum wage is higher, you still need to post the federal version.
- OSHA Workplace Safety Poster: Required under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, this poster informs employees about their right to a safe workplace and how to report hazards.
- FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) Poster: This explains employee rights to unpaid, job-protected leave for qualifying medical and family situations. Even if you have fewer than 50 employees, you still required to post this notice.
- Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) Poster: This explains restrictions on lie detector testing, even though most employers don’t use polygraphs.
- USERRA Poster: For employers with military employees, this explains rights related to military service and reemployment.
- EEO/Know Your Rights Poster: This informs employees about their protections against workplace discrimination and harassment based on protected characteristics.
These six federal postings must be displayed in each workplace location. If you have multiple buildings, multiple floors, or multiple facilities where employees don’t all gather in one central location, you need to post them in each area.
State and Local Additions
Federal requirements are just the beginning. Almost every state has additional requirements. Some states require:
- Updated state minimum wage posters (most common since state minimums exceed federal)
- State-specific safety and health notifications
- State discrimination and harassment prevention postings
- Whistleblower protections specific to that state
- Break time requirements for nursing mothers or meal periods
- Leave requirements beyond the federal FMLA
- Workers’ compensation information
- Unemployment insurance details
California, for instance, requires dozens of additional postings. New York, Texas, and Florida each state layers on its own requirements. This is why labor law posters can seem overwhelming; you’re actually dealing with multiple compliance requirements stacked on top of each other.
If you operate in multiple states, you need the postings for each state where you have employees. A business with locations in California and New York needs California postings in California locations and New York postings in New York locations.
Why These Requirements Exist
Governments mandate these postings because they represent a fundamental belief: employees have a right to know their legal rights. Employers can’t claim ignorance of labor laws as an excuse for violations, and employees shouldn’t have to hire a lawyer to understand basic workplace protections.
These postings serve as documentation that you’ve informed your workforce about their rights. If an employee later claims they didn’t know about FMLA leave, workers’ compensation, or anti-discrimination protections, your posted notices help demonstrate you met your notification obligations.
The posting requirements also create a level playing field. Every employer, large or small, must display the same information. This prevents unscrupulous employers from hiding employee rights or making workers think they have fewer protections than they actually do.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
The consequences of missing or outdated labor law posters are significant:
- Federal Fines: OSHA violations can result in civil penalties up to $16,550 per violation. A single workplace inspection finding missing posters could trigger multiple violations.
- State Fines: States have their own penalty structures.
- Investigation Exposure: When an employee files a complaint about wages, safety, discrimination, or any employment issue, regulators examine your postings first. Missing or outdated posters suggest broader compliance problems and can escalate an investigation.
- Lawsuit Vulnerability: If an employee sues, they might claim they didn’t understand their rights because you failed to post required notices. Your defense is weakened significantly.
- Business Disruption: Compliance violations can lead to work stoppage orders, mandatory corrections, and repeated inspections that consume management time and resources.
Who Needs Them?
Every employer with one or more employees is required to post labor law posters. It doesn’t matter if you’re:
- A solo operation with one part-time employee
- A family-owned business
- A nonprofit organization
- A temporary staffing agency
- A contractor with subcontractors
If you have any employees, full-time, part-time, temporary, seasonal, you need labor law posters.
Remote workers complicate things slightly. You still must provide posting information to remote employees, either by mailing printed copies or providing electronic access through the company email or intranet.
Practical Posting Best Practices
Simply having the posters isn’t enough; they must be properly displayed:
- Visible locations: Post them where employees naturally gather and will see them. Break rooms are ideal, but also consider main hallways, lunchrooms, and employee lounges.
- Multiple locations: If employees don’t all visit one central location, post in multiple spots. Large facilities need postings on each floor and in each building.
- Readable condition: Faded, torn, or covered-up posters don’t satisfy the requirement. Laminated posters last longer in high-traffic areas.
- Language accessibility: If you employ significant numbers of non-English speakers, provide postings in their language as well. Federal guidance suggests offering Spanish versions in addition to English.
- Digital options: For remote workers or shared workspaces with limited wall space, many jurisdictions allow digital posting through email, intranet, or even a binder kept at the workplace for employee review.
Getting Compliant
There are multiple options that you can opt for to remain compliant:
- Professional services: Many employers use compliance poster services that maintain current versions and automatically send updates when laws change. These services eliminate the guesswork and monitoring burden.
- Digital platforms: Some companies offer electronic posting services that manage your compliance digitally.
Choose whatever works for your business model and budget. The important thing is that your employees have current, accurate information about their legal rights.
The Bottom Line
If your company has one or more employees, then Federal law compels you to share information regarding your employees’ rights while they work in your facility. Unfortunately, too many Companies do not know what to place on their workplace postings or why it is required by Law, nor do they know the implications if they do not have them posted correctly or not all of them posted altogether. In this article, we’ll explain the fundamentals of workplace posting requirements and why they are vitally important to every company, no matter the size.