How Long to Keep Employee Records: Federal Rules

The federal retention table

Each federal law sets its own clock, and they do not all start on the same day. Some run from when the record was made, some from the personnel action, some from termination, and some from a tax filing. This table puts them side by side.

Minimum federal retention periods for employee records
Record	Keep for at least	Clock starts	Rule
Payroll records (name, pay rate, hours, wages paid)	3 years	From the record date	Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 CFR 516.5
Time cards, wage rate tables, work schedules, records of additions to or deductions from pay	2 years	From the record date	FLSA, 29 CFR 516.6
Personnel and employment records: applications, hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer, layoff, termination, pay, accommodation requests	1 year	From the date the record was made or the personnel action, whichever is later	Title VII, ADA and GINA, 29 CFR 1602.14
Personnel records of an employee you let go	1 year	From the termination date	29 CFR 1602.14
Age records: payroll showing name, address, date of birth, occupation, pay rate and weekly earnings	3 years	From the record date	Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 CFR 1627.3
Age records: job applications, resumes, promotion, layoff, job ads	1 year	From the personnel action	ADEA, 29 CFR 1627.3
Records of pay differences between men and women (wage rates, job evaluations, merit systems)	2 years	From the record date	Equal Pay Act, per the EEOC
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) records	3 years	From the record date	29 CFR 825.500
Form I-9	3 years after hire or 1 year after employment ends	Whichever date is later	USCIS
Employment tax records (W-4s, wages, deposits, returns)	4 years	After you file the fourth-quarter return for the year	IRS
OSHA 300 Log, 300A summary, 301 incident reports	5 years	After the end of the calendar year the records cover	29 CFR 1904.33

Not every law applies to every employer. Title VII, the ADA and GINA cover private employers with 15 or more employees, the ADEA covers those with 20 or more, the FMLA covers those with 50 or more, and the Equal Pay Act covers virtually all employers. See HR laws by company size for the full list.

Form I-9: how to work out the date

Keep every current employee’s Form I-9 for as long as they work for you. Once someone leaves, work out two dates and keep the form until the later one:

Their hire date plus 3 years.
Their last day plus 1 year.

In practice, if the person worked for you less than two years, the 3-years-from-hire date decides it. If they worked more than two years, keep the form for 1 year after they left. Keep the copies of identity documents you made with the form for the same period. More on the form itself is in Form I-9 and E-Verify.

If someone files a charge, stop the clock

The periods above are minimums for ordinary times. Once a discrimination charge or lawsuit is filed, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rules say you must keep every personnel record relevant to it until the charge or lawsuit is finally resolved. That includes records about the person who complained and about others in similar jobs. Do not let a routine deletion schedule run over records tied to an open dispute.

Medical records go in a separate, confidential file

Medical information you collect about employees or applicants under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has to be kept on separate forms, in separate medical files, and treated as confidential. Supervisors and managers may be told only what they need to know: necessary work restrictions and accommodations. FMLA certifications and medical histories follow the same rule: keep them separate from the regular personnel file.

OSHA injury logs and who is exempt

Employers that must keep OSHA injury and illness records have to save the OSHA 300 Log, the 300A annual summary and the 301 incident reports for 5 years after the end of the year they cover, and update the stored logs if a case changes. Many small tech companies are partly exempt:

If you had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year, you do not need to keep these records unless OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics asks you in writing.
Certain low-hazard industries are partly exempt regardless of size. The list includes software publishers, computer systems design, data processing and hosting, and many professional services firms.
Every employer, exempt or not, must report a work-related death to OSHA within 8 hours, and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours.

State rules can be longer: California as an example

Many states add their own retention rules, and the longer rule wins. California shows how much longer they can be:

Payroll records showing hours worked each day and wages paid: at least 3 years (Labor Code 1174).
Each employee’s personnel records: at least 3 years after employment ends (Labor Code 1198.5).
Applications, personnel and employment records for employers covered by the Fair Employment and Housing Act: at least 4 years from when the record was created, and personnel files of applicants and terminated employees for 4 years after the employment action (Government Code 12946).

If you have people in several states, the simplest safe approach is one retention schedule that uses the longest period that applies to each type of record. The state pages under HR by state cover other state rules.

Common questions

Can I keep employee records longer than the minimum?

Yes. The federal periods are minimums. Many employers keep personnel files for several years after someone leaves so they can answer questions about pay or dates of employment, but anything you keep can also be requested in a dispute, so set a schedule and follow it.

Can employee records be stored electronically?

Generally yes. The FMLA rules, for example, allow records to be kept in electronic or other form as long as they can be viewed and reproduced, and FLSA records may be kept at the workplace or a central records office as long as they are available for inspection.

How long do I keep records for job applicants I did not hire?

Under federal rules, at least 1 year from when the record was made or the hiring decision, whichever is later. California requires 4 years for employers covered by its Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Do I keep a terminated employee’s Form I-9 forever?

No. Keep it until 3 years after the hire date or 1 year after employment ended, whichever is later. After that date the federal retention requirement ends.

How MambaHR handles this

MambaHR is the HR records system, so hiring records, personnel changes, leave and exits sit in one place, and every change is logged. It starts the Form I-9 at onboarding and answers retention questions with the federal or state rule cited, sending unclear cases to a person.

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Sources

Last reviewed October 2, 2026. This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change and exceptions apply, so check the sources above or an employment lawyer before you act on a specific case.