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How long to keep HR records: the federal retention minimums

There is no single answer to how long an employer must keep a record, because different federal laws set different minimums for different documents. A Form I-9 follows one rule, payroll another, tax records a third, and safety records can run for decades. Here is the federal floor for each record type, every period checked against its primary source, and the one principle that keeps you out of trouble when the rules overlap.

About a 9 minute read Last verified 2 June 2026
The short answer

Federal law does not give you one retention period. It gives you a stack of them, one per law, and they rarely match. The safe rule is simple: when more than one law touches a record, keep it for the longest period that applies, and never destroy anything while a claim, charge, or audit is open. Form I-9 has its own formula (the later of three years after hire or one year after the person leaves). Payroll records run three years, employment-tax records four, personnel records one, benefit-plan records six, and some OSHA safety records thirty. Your state may require longer. The list below is the federal floor; build your schedule up from it.

Hire + 3 / End + 1
The Form I-9 rule. Keep each I-9 the later of three years after the hire date or one year after employment ends.
1 to 6 years
Where most core HR records fall: one year for personnel records, three for payroll, four for tax, six for benefit-plan records. A few run far longer.
The idea in one line

Keep it for the longest clock that touches it

The mistake that costs employers is treating retention as one number. It is not. A single employee folder can hold a job application governed by a one-year rule, a payroll record governed by a three-year rule, a W-4 governed by a four-year rule, and a 401(k) record governed by a six-year rule. Purge the folder on the shortest clock and you have thrown out records you were still required to keep.

So the working rule is to find every law that touches a record and keep the record for the longest of those periods. Four forces set that final number, and the federal statute is only the first.

Four things set how long you keep a record
1
The federal statutory minimumThe floor set by whichever federal law governs the document: the FLSA for payroll, the IRS for tax records, the EEOC rules for personnel files, and so on. This is the starting point, not the finish line.
2
Your state’s rule, which is often longerStates set their own retention periods, and many run past the federal minimum. Where a state requires more, the state number wins. Always check your own state before you set a schedule.
3
An open claim, charge, or auditA lawsuit, an EEOC charge, or a DOL or IRS audit freezes the clock. Once you know a claim exists or is coming, you must preserve the relevant records until it is resolved, even past the normal period.
4
Practical business needSome records earn their keep beyond any legal minimum: signed agreements, benefit elections, and anything you might need to answer a former employee’s question years later. Longer is often the safer default.
The federal floor

Record by record, what the minimum is

Here are the core federal minimums for the records most employers handle. Each shows the period and the law behind it. Treat these as floors. Your state, your industry, or an open dispute can push any of them higher.

Form I-9 3 yr / 1 yr

Keep each I-9 the later of three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends. For anyone employed less than about two years, the three-years-after-hire date is the one that controls.

8 CFR 274a.2, enforced by USCIS and DHS

Payroll records 3 years

Names, addresses, pay rates, hours worked, wages paid, additions and deductions, plus collective bargaining agreements and certificates. The same three-year floor applies under the ADEA for the records it covers.

FLSA, 29 CFR 516; ADEA, 29 CFR 1627

Wage-computation records 2 years

The working documents behind the pay numbers: time cards, work and time schedules, wage-rate tables, and records of additions to or deductions from wages. The clock runs from the last entry.

FLSA, 29 CFR 516

Employment-tax records 4 years

Form 941 or 944 returns, W-2 and W-4 copies, deposit confirmations, tip records, and the rest. Keep them at least four years after the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later. A late payment extends the clock.

IRS, 26 CFR 31.6001-1

Personnel and hiring records 1 year

Applications, resumes, interview notes, promotion and transfer records, and termination documents. Keep them one year from the date the record was made or the action was taken, or one year from termination, whichever is later. The same rule covers ADA, GINA, and pregnant-worker accommodation records.

Title VII, ADA, GINA, PWFA; 29 CFR 1602

FMLA leave records 3 years

Leave dates and hours, notices to and from employees, medical certifications kept confidentially, and any dispute over leave designation. No particular form is required, but the records must be kept three years.

FMLA, 29 CFR 825.500

OSHA injury logs 5 years

The OSHA 300 Log, the 300A annual summary, any privacy case list, and the 301 incident reports. Keep them five years after the calendar year they cover, and update the logs if a case changes. Many low-hazard small employers are exempt from logging at all.

OSHA, 29 CFR 1904.33

Benefit-plan records 6 years

Everything that supports a plan filing such as the Form 5500: plan documents, financial reports, nondiscrimination testing, and required participant notices. Keep them at least six years from the filing date.

ERISA Section 107, 29 U.S.C. 1027

Two records sit far outside that one-to-six-year band. Both come from rules that protect long-tail risks, and both can require keeping documents for the length of a career or longer.

OSHA exposure and medical records 30 years

If you create employee exposure records for hazardous substances, keep them thirty years. Employee medical records run the duration of employment plus thirty years. This applies to employers whose work involves regulated exposures, not every business.

OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.1020

Benefit-determination records As long as relevant

Beyond the six-year filing rule, ERISA requires records sufficient to determine the benefits due to each employee for as long as those records could matter to a benefit claim. In practice that can mean decades, because the clock on a benefit claim may not start until a claim is denied.

ERISA Section 209, 29 U.S.C. 1059
A worked example

Run the I-9 clock for two employees

The I-9 is the rule people get wrong most often, because it is the only one with a formula instead of a flat number. You compare two dates and keep the form until the later one. Here it is for a long-tenure employee and a short-tenure employee, side by side.

Employee A, hired 1 March 2019, left 30 June 2025 (about six years of service)
Three years after the hire date1 March 2022
One year after employment ends30 June 2026
Keep the I-9 until the later date30 June 2026
For a long-tenure employee, the one-year-after-departure clock is later, so it controls.
Employee B, hired 1 February 2024, left 1 April 2024 (about two months of service)
Three years after the hire date1 February 2027
One year after employment ends1 April 2025
Keep the I-9 until the later date1 February 2027
Employee B worked two months, yet you keep this I-9 until February 2027, nearly three years after the last day. Short tenures land on the hire-plus-three clock.

The crossover sits at two years of service. Employ someone for less than two years and the hire-plus-three date is always later, so you hold the I-9 well past their departure. Employ someone longer and the departure-plus-one date takes over. Either way you keep the I-9 for the whole time someone works for you, then run the comparison once they leave.

Where it goes wrong

Four ways the retention clock gets missed

  • Keeping only the federal minimum.The federal number is a floor, not a ceiling. Many states require records for longer, and where they do, the state period is the one you have to meet. A schedule built on federal minimums alone can still be short in your state.
  • Purging an I-9 on the wrong clock.Tossing a short-tenure employee’s I-9 a year after they leave feels right and is wrong. The hire-plus-three clock usually runs later for anyone employed under two years, and destroying the form early is a substantive violation if an inspection follows.
  • Destroying records while a matter is open.A normal retention period stops mattering the moment a claim, charge, or audit is live. Routine shredding that sweeps up relevant records during an open dispute can become a separate and far worse problem than the original claim.
  • Applying one blanket period to everything.A flat "we keep everything a year" or "everything seven years" policy will be too short for some records and wasteful for others. Retention is record by record, and a real schedule names the period for each type.

Pause before you shred anything tied to a dispute. The retention minimums on this page assume normal operations. The moment you receive an EEOC charge, a lawsuit, a DOL or IRS audit notice, or even a credible signal that a claim is coming, a duty to preserve attaches and overrides the routine clock. Destroying records that are relevant to that matter, even on your usual schedule, can expose you to sanctions and can flip the presumption against you, because a court often treats the employee’s account as correct when the employer cannot produce the records. When any claim, charge, or audit is open or reasonably expected, stop routine destruction of the relevant files and talk to employment counsel before you purge anything.

Sources

Where these figures come from

Primary sources

  1. USCIS, Handbook for Employers (M-274), Retaining Form I-9. The source for keeping each I-9 the later of three years after hire or one year after employment ends, under 8 CFR 274a.2. uscis.gov, retaining Form I-9Checked 2 June 2026
  2. U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet 21. The source for the FLSA three-year period for payroll records and the two-year period for wage-computation records, summarizing 29 CFR Part 516. dol.gov, FLSA recordkeepingChecked 2 June 2026
  3. IRS, Employment Tax Recordkeeping. The source for keeping employment-tax records at least four years after the tax is due or paid, whichever is later, under 26 CFR 31.6001-1. irs.gov, employment tax recordkeepingChecked 2 June 2026
  4. EEOC, Recordkeeping Requirements. The source for the one-year period for personnel and employment records under Title VII, the ADA, GINA, and the PWFA (29 CFR 1602), the ADEA three-year payroll rule, and the duty to hold records tied to a charge until the matter is resolved. eeoc.gov, recordkeeping requirementsChecked 2 June 2026
  5. Family and Medical Leave Act regulations, 29 CFR 825.500. The source for keeping FMLA records at least three years, with no particular form required. ecfr.gov, 29 CFR 825.500Checked 2 June 2026
  6. OSHA recordkeeping standards. The source for keeping injury and illness records (the 300 Log, 300A summary, and 301 reports) five years after the calendar year they cover (29 CFR 1904.33), and for keeping employee exposure records thirty years and medical records the duration of employment plus thirty years (29 CFR 1910.1020). osha.gov, 1904.33 and osha.gov, 1910.1020Checked 2 June 2026
  7. ERISA Section 107, 29 U.S.C. 1027. The source for keeping plan records that support a filing such as the Form 5500 for not less than six years from the filing date. Section 209 (29 U.S.C. 1059) extends benefit-determination records for as long as they may be relevant to a claim. govinfo.gov, 29 U.S.C. 1027Checked 2 June 2026

These are federal minimums, and they are floors. Your state often requires longer, your industry may add its own rules, and an open claim or audit overrides the routine clock. The periods are durable but not frozen, so confirm your state’s requirements and your own obligations before you build a retention schedule or destroy a single record.

Put it to work

Tools that build on this

Turn the rules into a working schedule

HR Compliance Calendar and Document Audit. Maps the records you hold to the periods you have to keep them, and sets the recurring dates for reviewing and clearing files so retention is a routine, not a scramble. Find it at truestephr.com.

Small Business HR Policy Starter Pack. Includes a records-retention policy you can adapt to your state and your records, so the schedule above lives in a written policy instead of in someone’s memory. Find it at truestephr.com.

Questions

Common questions

Keep it the later of three years after the hire date or one year after the last day of work. Compare the two dates and hold the form until whichever is further out. For anyone employed less than about two years, the three-years-after-hire date is later, so you keep the I-9 well past their departure.

The FLSA sets three years for payroll records and two years for the supporting time and wage-calculation documents. The IRS wants employment-tax records, including W-4s and W-2 copies, for four years. Because pay and tax records overlap, treat four years as the practical floor for the whole pay-and-tax file, and check whether your state asks for longer.

Personnel records carry a one-year minimum from the termination date under Title VII and the ADA. But the same person’s I-9, payroll, and tax records run longer on their own clocks, and benefit-plan records longer still. And if that employee files an EEOC charge or a lawsuit, you must keep everything relevant until the matter is fully resolved, regardless of the normal period.

No single number fits, but a workable default is to keep most HR records for at least the longest federal minimum that touches them, which is often four years for pay-and-tax files and six for benefit-plan records, then layer your state’s rules on top and hold everything during any claim or audit. A handful of safety records, employee exposure and medical files, run for decades and need their own track.