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Does Your Business Need Labor Law Posters?

Short answer, yes.

Longer answer, yes… and most businesses don’t realize how easy it is to be out of compliance.

Labor law posters are required for employers at both the federal and state level. In California, that list is even longer, and it changes more often than most people expect. Minimum wage updates, paid sick leave rules, leave laws, and discrimination notices all show up in required postings.

The issue isn’t whether you need them. It’s whether what you have is actually up to date.

Where Employers Get Tripped Up

Most companies handle posters one of three ways:

• They put something up on the wall years ago and never revisit it
• They download a few notices online and assume they’re covered
• They’re paying for some sort of service but aren’t really sure what they’re getting

The problem is that labor law posters aren’t a one-and-done requirement.

They need to be updated when laws change, and in California, that happens regularly. If you’re not tracking those changes, there’s a good chance something on your wall is already outdated.

What Needs to Be Posted (At a High Level)

You don’t need to memorize every poster, but you should know the categories you’re responsible for.

Here are some of the key ones most California employers are required to display:

Federal posters:

• Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage, overtime)
• Family and Medical Leave Act (if applicable based on size)
• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)
• OSHA / Job Safety and Health

California state posters:

• California Minimum Wage
• Paid Sick Leave (Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act)
• Payday Notice
• Workers’ Compensation Notice
• Unemployment Insurance / Paid Family Leave / Disability Insurance
• California Family Rights Act (CFRA)
• Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL)
• Whistleblower protections
• “No Smoking” notice (for applicable workplaces)

Local posters:

• City or county minimum wage notices (Los Angeles, San Diego, etc.)
• Local sick leave ordinances where applicable

Not every poster applies to every business, but most employers have more requirements than they realize, especially once you factor in local rules.

Remote Employees Count Too

This is another one that catches people off guard.

If you have remote employees, you still have an obligation to provide access to required postings. That typically means distributing them electronically in a way employees can easily access.

Having posters in the office alone doesn’t cover you anymore.

What Happens If You Don’t Have Them

This usually comes up in one of two situations:

• A labor audit
• An employee complaint

At that point, it’s not just about fixing it. There can be penalties tied to missing or outdated postings, depending on what’s involved.

It’s not the biggest compliance issue out there, but it’s one of the easiest to avoid.

One More Thing Worth Calling Out

You’ve probably seen payroll companies charging monthly fees for labor law posters.

In many cases, these are set up as opt-out services, meaning they’re added automatically and continue unless you actively remove them. Because of that, a lot of employers end up paying for them without really knowing what’s included, how often updates are happening, or whether they’re fully covered.

Another thing we see quite a bit is that these services often provide only one single physical poster per company. That may check the box for a small, single-location business, but it falls short pretty quickly if you have multiple locations or a primarily remote workforce.

Here at Premier, we recommend that you order directly from a reputable labor law poster provider. That way, you know exactly what you’re getting, how it’s being updated, and how it’s being distributed across your locations and team.

There’s nothing wrong with using a service if it keeps things current. Just make sure you understand what you’re paying for and that it actually fits how your business operates.

The Bottom Line

This is one of those areas where many employers assume they’re fine until they take a closer look.

If you haven’t reviewed your posters recently, it’s worth a quick check to make sure everything is current, that local requirements are covered, and that remote employees have access.

If you’re not completely sure that what you have in place today works, it’s an easy thing to sanity check. We’re happy to help if you want a quick review.