Required federal labor law posters: the six most employers must display

Most of the set starts at your first employee

The common worry is that workplace posters are a big-company problem. They are not. The duty to post the core federal notices does not wait for you to reach some headcount. Four notices apply to ordinary businesses from the day they have one employee. They are the minimum wage notice, the safety notice, the polygraph notice, and the military reemployment notice. Only two of the six are gated by size, and the gates are easy to remember. At 15 employees you add the discrimination poster. At 50 you add the family leave poster.

Posting is about notice, not money. The point is that an employee or applicant can see a plain summary of their rights. It has to sit in a place they pass through, and it has to say how to act. That is why the posters are free and why they have to go somewhere conspicuous. It is also why a missing one is a problem on its own, even if you have done nothing else wrong. Whether a given poster applies to you comes down to a short list of triggers.

1. You have at least one employee. Four posters apply to nearly every business right away. They are the FLSA minimum wage poster, the OSHA safety poster, the EPPA polygraph poster, and the USERRA notice. None of these has a headcount threshold.
2. You reach 15 employees. Add the EEOC Know Your Rights poster. Fifteen is the coverage line for Title VII, the ADA, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, so the discrimination poster becomes required at that point.
3. You reach 50 employees. Add the FMLA poster. The Family and Medical Leave Act covers employers at 50 employees. The poster must go up at every location, even ones where no one is currently eligible for leave.
4. You hold a federal contract or a special situation applies. A separate set can attach. That includes pay transparency and E-Verify notices for federal contractors. It also includes a subminimum-wage notice if you employ workers with disabilities at special rates, and a few others. These are situational, not universal.

The six posters and who has to display each

Here are the six core federal posters, each with the trigger that makes it required, what it covers, and the agency behind it. The first four apply to almost any employer. The last two switch on at 15 and 50 employees.

FLSA minimum wage Any employee

Employee Rights Under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Summarizes the federal minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor limits. Since a 2023 update it also carries the PUMP Act right to break time and a private space for nursing employees. Nearly every employer is covered.

OSHA Job Safety and Health Any employee

Job Safety and Health: It’s the Law. Tells workers they are entitled to a safe workplace and explains how to report a hazard to OSHA. Required of private employers affecting commerce. State-plan states use a state version, and federal agencies use their own.

EPPA polygraph notice Most private employers

Employee Rights, Employee Polygraph Protection Act. Explains the strict limits on lie-detector tests for applicants and employees. Required of private employers in or affecting commerce. Government employers are excluded as to their public employees.

USERRA notice Any employee

Your Rights Under USERRA. Covers reemployment rights and protection from discrimination for people who serve in the uniformed services. Applies to every employer regardless of size, including the federal government.

EEOC Know Your Rights 15+ employees

Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal. Covers Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, GINA, the Equal Pay Act, and, since June 2023, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Replaced the old EEO is the Law poster in 2022 and becomes required at 15 employees.

FMLA poster 50+ employees

Employee Rights and Responsibilities Under the FMLA. Summarizes unpaid, job-protected family and medical leave and how to file a complaint. Required at 50 employees, and it must be posted at every location, even where no employee is currently eligible.

Two of the six were rewritten in 2023, and that is the update most employers miss. The FLSA poster now carries the PUMP Act break time and space protections for nursing employees. The EEOC poster now carries the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. A poster printed before 2023 can look perfectly fine and still be out of date on both counts. If you cannot tell when yours was printed, download the current version and replace it.

When extra posters apply

The six above are the federal baseline. A federal contract or a specific pay practice can attach more, and one contractor poster that used to be required has been pulled.

Federal contractors and subcontractors If you hold federal contracts

Covered contractors display extra notices. Those are the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination provision, and the E-Verify and Right to Work posters if the contract requires E-Verify. Davis-Bacon or Service Contract Act notices apply on covered work. The NLRA employee-rights poster is required of federal contractors, not of private employers in general.

Special pay or industry Only if it applies

A subminimum-wage notice is required if you employ workers with disabilities at special rates under FLSA Section 14(c). Agricultural employers and a few regulated industries have their own notices. These attach to the practice, not to every business.

One change is worth flagging because it moved recently. The federal contractor minimum wage poster tied to the 2021 executive order is no longer enforced. That order was revoked in March 2025, and the Department of Labor has stopped enforcing it and the implementing rule. A current contractor poster set should not treat it as required. Contractor obligations shift with each administration, so confirm the contractor set against the agencies before you rely on an older list.

Watch the set grow as you hire

Four posters apply from the start and two switch on at headcounts. So the simplest way to see your obligation is to follow a single business as it grows. Here is the federal set for one company at three stages.

At your first employee FLSA minimum wage posterRequired OSHA Job Safety and Health posterRequired EPPA polygraph posterRequired USERRA noticeRequired When you reach 15 employees Add the EEOC Know Your Rights posterRequired at 15 When you reach 50 employees Add the FMLA posterRequired at 50 Federal posters on the wall at 50 or more6 A federal contract layers a separate set on top of these, and your state and city almost certainly add their own, on minimum wage, paid sick leave, workers’ compensation, and discrimination. The six here are only the federal floor.

The takeaway is the order, not the count. You owe four posters before headcount enters the picture at all. The discrimination poster arrives at 15, the leave poster at 50, and everything past that is state, local, or situational.

Four ways the posting rule gets missed

• Displaying a pre-2023 poster.The PUMP Act update to the FLSA poster and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act update to the EEOC poster both landed in 2023. A poster older than that is stale even if it looks current, and a stale poster does not satisfy the requirement.
• Assuming a small business posts nothing.Four of the six apply from your first employee, with no headcount trigger at all. The belief that posters are only for larger employers leaves the most common ones off the wall at exactly the businesses that overlook them.
• Forgetting remote and multi-site workers.Each physical location needs its own posters. A fully remote workforce still has to be given the notices. The agencies allow you to provide them electronically, through a site or shared drive employees can always reach. A single copy taped up in someone’s home office does not do it.
• Paying for posters that are free, then skipping the ones that are not federal.Every federal poster is free from the issuing agency, and OSHA says plainly not to pay a third party for its poster. An all-in-one product is fine for convenience, but it is optional. Buying one does not cover your separate state and city postings. Those change often and are where most gaps actually open up.

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