How Long to Keep Payroll Records: FLSA, IRS, and State Rules

Federal law generally requires you to keep payroll records for three to six years, with the exact length depending on the document and the agency that regulates it. The Department of Labor sets a three-year floor for wage and hour records under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the IRS requires four years for employment tax records, and ERISA stretches that to six years for benefit plan filings. Because these timelines overlap and some states go longer, a seven-year default is the cleanest way to answer the question of how long to keep payroll records without tracking a dozen separate clocks.

Federal Retention Periods at a Glance

  • Core FLSA payroll records: three years
  • Supporting time cards and wage calculations: two years
  • Employment tax records (FICA, FUTA, withholding): four years
  • ERISA retirement and welfare plan records: six years
  • Form I-9: three years from hire or one year after separation, whichever is later
  • EEOC personnel records under Title VII: one year
  • ADEA payroll records: three years
  • FMLA records: three years
  • OSHA 300 logs and 301 reports: five years
  • 1099 information returns: three years (four if backup withholding applied)

Every number above is a minimum. When two rules cover the same document, the longer one wins.

FLSA Wage and Hour Records

The Fair Labor Standards Act splits payroll documentation into two tiers.

Three-Year Records

Primary payroll records must be kept for at least three years from the last date of entry. That covers each employee’s full name, home address, hours worked each workday and workweek, daily or weekly straight-time earnings, pay dates, and the pay period each payment covers. Records of additions to or deductions from wages, including reimbursements, garnishments, and benefit contributions, belong in this three-year bucket with the dates and amounts of each item.1eCFR. 29 CFR Part 516 – Records to Be Kept by Employers

Two-Year Records

Supporting documents carry a shorter two-year minimum: daily time cards, wage rate tables used to compute piece-rate or other variable pay, shipping or billing records tied to employee output, and the worksheets showing how you calculated additions to or deductions from wages.1eCFR. 29 CFR Part 516 – Records to Be Kept by Employers

The three-year floor lines up with the FLSA statute of limitations. Wage claims generally have a two-year window, but that stretches to three years when the violation is willful.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations Destroying primary records at the two-year mark leaves you exposed for that third year, and when an employer can’t produce records, courts often accept the employee’s account of hours and pay. Unpaid wages then come doubled through liquidated damages.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties

Employment Tax Records: Four Years

The IRS requires every business to keep employment tax records for at least four years after the tax was due or paid, whichever date is later. This covers Social Security and Medicare taxes, federal income tax withholding, and FUTA.4eCFR. 26 CFR 31.6001-1 – Records in General

In practice, that means holding total compensation paid to each worker, amounts subject to withholding, the tax withheld, and the dates and amounts of your deposits. Any non-cash compensation, such as company vehicles, housing, or stock options, needs its value documented as well.

ERISA Plan Records: Six Years

If your business sponsors a retirement plan, health plan, or other employee welfare benefit plan, ERISA requires records that support your plan filings to be kept for at least six years after the filing date. This is the longest federal retention period most employers will encounter. It covers vouchers, worksheets, receipts, and resolutions, along with anything else needed to verify, explain, or check the accuracy of documents filed with the Department of Labor.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 1027 – Retention of Records

Form I-9 Records

Every employee hired after November 6, 1986, must have a completed Form I-9 on file. The retention rule is the later of three years after the hire date or one year after employment ends.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retaining Form I-9

If someone worked for you fewer than two years, keep the form for three years from their start date. If they worked longer, keep it for one year after their last day. You must be able to produce the form within three business days when a government inspector requests it, whether you store it on paper or digitally.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retention and Storage

Personnel and Anti-Discrimination Records

EEOC Records Under Title VII

Personnel and employment records covered by Title VII must be preserved for one year from the date the record was made or the personnel action occurred, whichever is later. For an involuntary termination, the clock starts on the termination date.8eCFR. 29 CFR 1602.14 – Preservation of Records Made or Kept These rules apply to employers with 15 or more employees.

The one-year minimum is a floor. Once a discrimination charge is filed, you must keep every record related to that charge until the matter is fully resolved, including the investigation, any right-to-sue period, and any resulting litigation and appeals.9U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Recordkeeping Requirements Destroying records after a charge has been filed can turn a defensible case into an indefensible one.

ADEA Records

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act adds a separate layer. Payroll records showing each employee’s name, address, date of birth, occupation, pay rate, and weekly compensation must be kept for three years. Personnel records tied to specific actions such as hiring, promotions, demotions, or discharges carry a one-year retention period from the date of the action. Written benefit plans, seniority systems, and merit systems must be kept for the full time the plan is in effect plus one year after it ends. Once an enforcement action is filed, all related records must be preserved until final disposition.10eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1627 – Records to Be Made or Kept Relating to Age

FMLA and OSHA Records

Employers covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act must keep FMLA-related records for at least three years, including employee leave notices, written responses to leave requests, records of leave taken, and any documents relating to disputes over FMLA eligibility or designation.11eCFR. 29 CFR 825.500 – Recordkeeping Requirements

OSHA requires employers to save the 300 Log of work-related injuries and illnesses, the annual summary, and individual 301 Incident Report forms for five years following the end of the calendar year they cover. These logs aren’t static: you’re expected to update them during the retention period to reflect newly discovered cases or changes in previously recorded ones.12OSHA. 29 CFR 1904.33 – Retention and Updating

Contractor and ACA Records

The IRS requires you to keep copies of information returns like Form 1099-NEC, or the ability to reconstruct the data, for at least three years from the return’s due date. Extend that to four years if you imposed backup withholding on any contractor payment.13Internal Revenue Service. General Instructions for Certain Information Returns Hold onto W-9s for the same period. The original W-9 stays valid unless the contractor’s taxpayer ID, name, or withholding status changes.

Applicable large employers, generally those with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees, must file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. The IRS requires you to keep copies, or the data to reconstruct them, for at least three years from the due date. Because ACA enforcement can lag and penalties can be substantial, some advisors keep these records for the full four-year employment tax period.14Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C

State Rules and the Seven-Year Default

Federal timelines are the starting point. Many states impose longer retention periods for wage and hour records, often tied to a state statute of limitations for wage claims that runs longer than the federal one. Some states require six years or more. State unemployment insurance records typically must be kept for three to five years, depending on the jurisdiction.

When a state requirement exceeds the federal minimum, follow the longer period. Rather than tracking separate rules for every state where you employ people, the simplest approach is to default to the longest applicable period across all your locations. For most multi-state employers, a six- or seven-year blanket policy covers every federal minimum and nearly every state variation.

When the Retention Clock Starts

Getting the start date right matters as much as the length. The trigger depends on which rule governs the record:

The most common slip is starting the employment tax clock the day payroll ran rather than the date the tax was due. A quarterly return filed in January for the prior quarter starts a four-year window that runs from the return’s due date.

Storing and Destroying Records

You can store payroll records electronically, but the system has to meet IRS standards: accurate transfers from paper originals, an indexing system for quick retrieval, controls against unauthorized changes, regular quality checks, legible paper copies on demand, and a cross-referenced audit trail between your general ledger and source documents. The IRS also requires that your electronic system not be subject to any license or contract term that would limit the agency’s access during an examination.15Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Procedure 97-22 Cloud provider terms of service that restrict third-party access can create a compliance gap.

Once a retention period expires, disposal has its own rules. Payroll records contain Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and compensation data. Federal law requires businesses to take reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access when disposing of records that contain personal information. Acceptable methods include shredding or pulverizing paper and wiping or destroying electronic media so the data can’t be reconstructed.16eCFR. 16 CFR Part 682 – Disposal of Consumer Report Information and Records If you hire a shredding vendor, check references, confirm their procedures meet federal standards, and get a certificate of destruction for each batch. The regulation allows you to satisfy the disposal requirement through a qualified third party, but you remain responsible for monitoring their compliance.