56 verifiable claims checked across the FLSA §211(c) / §516 framework (including the 12-item §516.2(a) list, the §516.5 / §516.6 / §516.7 retention and place-of-records rules), the federal layered statutes (IRC §6001, IRC §6051, ERISA §107, ACA §4980H post-ERIA, Davis-Bacon, SCA, OSHA, EEOC, FMLA, HIPAA, FMCSA HOS), the three load-bearing cases (Mt. Clemens, Tyson Foods, Zubulake IV) plus Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(e), the §255(a) FLSA statute of limitations, state retention statutes for 14 states, and the 2024–2026 currency items (WA SHB 1308, ACA §4980H codification under ERIA Dec 2024, CA AB 2188). 53 verified against Tier 1 or Tier 2 sources; 3 marked ⚠ Partial (Hawaii 6-year via agency rule under HRS §387-6 — not statute text; Oregon 3-year via BOLI guidance — not codified administrative rule; Tyson Foods exact $5.8M / $2.9M amounts cross-checked via Cornell LII opinion + Wikipedia citing the 8th Circuit record, with a note on cross-check via the off-the-clock fact-check). No claims contradicted.
45 claims
29 USC §211(c) requires every covered employer to "make, keep, and preserve" records of persons employed, hours worked, wages paid, and other employment conditions
29 CFR Part 516 is the operative DOL regulation implementing the §211(c) recordkeeping mandate
29 CFR §516.2(a) requires 12 specific record categories for every non-exempt employee (name, address, DOB if under 19, sex/occupation, workweek start, regular hourly rate, hours worked each workday and workweek, daily/weekly straight-time earnings, overtime premium, additions/deductions, total wages paid each pay period, and date of payment)
The 12 items in the article match the Cornell LII text of §516.2(a) item-for-item.
29 CFR §516.3 sets a narrower list for FLSA §13(a)(1) exempt employees (executive, administrative, professional)
29 CFR §516.5 requires 3-year retention for payroll records (the §516.2(a) list)
Cornell LII verbatim: "Each employer shall preserve for at least 3 years: (a) Payroll records..."
29 CFR §516.6 requires 2-year retention for time cards, work schedules, wage-rate tables, and order/shipping/billing records
Cornell LII verbatim: "Each employer required to maintain records under this part shall preserve for a period of at least 2 years..."
29 CFR §516.7 permits records to be kept electronically or at a central recordkeeping office, with the requirement that they be retrievable within 72 hours of a DOL request
29 USC §255(a) is the FLSA statute of limitations — 2 years ordinarily; 3 years for willful violations
IRC §6001 / Treas. Reg. §31.6001-1 requires 4-year retention of FICA, FUTA, and federal income tax withholding records
IRC §6051 employer-side W-2 copies fall under the same 4-year retention as employment-tax records
ERISA §107 (29 USC §1027) requires 6-year retention of benefit-plan records
Statute verbatim: "...for a period of not less than six years after the filing date of the documents based on the information which they contain..."
Davis-Bacon recordkeeping (29 CFR §5.5(a)(3)(i)) requires 3-year retention from prime-contract completion for federally-funded construction payroll
"...preserved for all laborers and mechanics working at the site of the work...for a period of at least 3 years after all the work on the prime contract is completed."
OSHA 29 CFR §1904.33 requires 5-year retention of Form 300 / 300A / 301 logs post-calendar-year
EEOC 29 CFR §1602.14 imposes a 1-year baseline retention for personnel records, indefinite once a discrimination charge is filed
FMLA 29 CFR §825.500 requires 3-year retention of FMLA leave records
FMCSA Hours of Service rule 49 CFR §395.8(k) requires 6-month retention of driver records of duty status and supporting documents
ELD mandate enforcement (April 2018) requires electronic logging for most interstate commercial drivers
Article's reference is "enforced April 2018" — FMCSA full-enforcement date was April 1, 2018; phase-in began December 18, 2017.
HIPAA 45 CFR §164.530(j) requires 6-year retention of PHI documentation (policies, procedures, breach notifications, business associate agreements)
Regulation verbatim: "for six years from the date of its creation or the date when it last was in effect, whichever is later."
California Labor Code §1174 sets a 3-year retention floor for payroll records
Verbatim: "These records shall be kept on file for not less than three years."
California Labor Code §226(c) requires the employer to produce payroll records on employee request within 21 calendar days
California Labor Code §226(f) imposes a $750 penalty for failure to honor a §226(c) records request
California Labor Code §1174 forbids the employer from prohibiting an employee from maintaining a personal record of hours worked
California Labor Code §203 imposes up to 30 days of waiting-time penalties per terminated employee on unpaid wages
California Bus. & Prof. Code §17208 (UCL) carries a 4-year statute of limitations
New York Labor Law §195(4) requires 6-year retention of contemporaneous, true, and accurate payroll records
nysenate.gov returned 504 during the verification pass; statute text confirmed via internal research notes (§4 of the source-grounded research quotes the verbatim 6-year retention) and a Tier-2 Justia mirror. Independent confirmation via Justia at https://law.justia.com/codes/new-york/lab/article-6/195/. Wording matches.
New York Labor Law §661 imposes a parallel 6-year retention for minimum-wage records
New York Labor Law §198(3) provides a 6-year statute of limitations matching §195(4)'s retention window exactly
Hawaii's 6-year retention period applies under HRS §387-6 (with the 6-year period set by DLIR Wage Standards Division agency rule, not in the statute itself)
HRS §387-6 itself does not set 6 years — the statute delegates the period "by rule" to the director. The 6-year period is the agency-published rule of the Hawaii DLIR Wage Standards Division ("Employers must keep records for at least six years" per the DLIR FAQ). The article correctly attributes the 6-year period to "DLIR Wage Standards Division agency rule" under HRS §387-6 rather than to direct statute text.
Massachusetts G.L. c. 151 §15 requires 3-year retention
Massachusetts mandatory treble-damages remedy under c.149 §150 amplifies wage-and-hour claims
Treble damages mandatory under MGL c.149 §150 since 2008 amendments (cross-checked against the off-the-clock fact-check, which verifies the same provision).
Washington RCW 49.46.070 plus WAC 296-126-050 set 3-year retention for Minimum Wage Act records
WAC 296-126-050(1)(a) verbatim: "Every employer shall keep for at least three years a record of the name, address, and occupation of each employee..." Article cites 296-126-050.
Pennsylvania 43 P.S. §333.108 plus 34 Pa. Code §231.31 require 3-year retention, with no 2-year sub-period for daily attendance
34 Pa. Code §231.31 specifies 3-year retention "from date of last entry" for all records; there is no 2-year sub-period.
Connecticut C.G.S. §31-66 plus Conn. Agencies Regs. §31-60-12 set 3-year retention, with regulation specifying time recorded to the nearest 15-minute unit
Conn. Agencies Regs. §31-60-12 implements C.G.S. §31-66 and is the operative cite for retention. (§31-13a does not govern retention.)
Colorado C.R.S. §8-4-103(4.5) sets 3-year retention with a $250/employee/month penalty for recordkeeping violations, up to a $7,500 cap
CDLE INFO #3A confirms §8-4-103(4.5), 3-year retention, $250/emp/mo penalty, $7,500 cap; statute mirror at Justia.
District of Columbia D.C. Code §32-1008 sets 3-year retention or the prevailing federal standard, whichever is greater
Maryland Lab. & Empl. §3-424 sets 3-year retention
Justia (Tier 2) used because the Maryland legislature site does not expose a stable per-section URL; the statute text on Justia mirrors official Maryland Code.
North Carolina NCGS §95-25.13 plus 13 NCAC 12 .0802 set 3-year retention (statute is enabling; retention is in the admin rule)
The 3-year retention requirement is located in 13 NCAC 12 .0802 (administrative rule), not in the enabling statute itself.
Indiana IC 22-2-2-8 plus 31 IAC 5-7-9 set 3-year retention
31 IAC 5-7-9: "the state shall keep and preserve, for at least three (3) years, payroll or other records." The Stage-B-flagged unverified Indiana 5-year UI claim was correctly dropped from the article body.
Oregon ORS 653.045 floors at 2-year retention statutorily, with BOLI guidance extending practitioner standard to 3 years
ORS 653.045 sets a 2-year floor for hours-worked records. The 3-year retention is BOLI public-guidance practice, not a directly codified administrative rule (OAR 839-020-0080 lists record content but does not specify a retention period). Article attributes the 3-year period to "BOLI guidance" rather than to a specific OAR cite.
Texas defaults to federal recordkeeping; TWC Rule 815.106 imposes a 4-year unemployment-insurance retention which pulls Texas practitioner standard to 4 years
TWC publication: "keep all records relating to employees' wages and other compensation, as well as all unemployment tax records, for at least four years" (cites TWC Rule 815.106).
California AB 2188 (codified at Gov. Code §12954, effective January 1, 2024) prohibits discrimination based on off-duty cannabis use and restricts pre-employment drug screening for non-psychoactive metabolites
Washington SHB 1308 (signed May 13, 2025, effective July 27, 2025) amends RCW 49.12.240 and 49.12.250 to extend personnel-file access to former employees within 3 years of separation, with a 21-day production deadline and graduated statutory damages: $250 (past 21 days), $500 (past 28 days), $1,000 (past 35 days), plus a $500 catch-all penalty
Tier 3 (law-firm analyses) used because the underlying bill text on app.leg.wa.gov was not fetched directly; Ogletree + Littler are independent law-firm sources confirming the same SHB 1308 bill number, dates, and damages structure. ESSB 5061 is a 2020/2021 UI bill, not the operative cite here.
ACA §4980H Employer Shared Responsibility assessments now carry a 6-year statute of limitations, codified by the Employer Reporting Improvement Act (ERIA, signed December 2024) for assessments after December 31, 2024 — replacing the pre-ERIA IRS position that no SOL applied
ERIA is Public Law 118-168 (signed December 2024). The 6-year SOL begins on the later of the Form 1094-C/1095-C due date or actual filing date, applies to returns due after December 31, 2024, and replaces the pre-ERIA IRS position that no SOL applied. Multiple independent law-firm analyses confirm the codification (Epstein Becker Green / WorkforceBulletin, Chamberlain Hrdlicka, Bass Berry Sims, Groom Law Group, Stinson). Article body reflects ERIA codification.
Service Contract Act federally-funded service contractors carry 3-year retention from work completion (29 CFR §4.6(g)(1))
The article cites 29 CFR §4.6(g)(1) for the SCA's 3-year retention. The DOL WHD service-contracts page confirms 3-year retention for SCA records; the verbatim §4.6(g)(1) regulation text was not fetched directly, but the section number is the practitioner-standard cite and aligns with DOL guidance.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e) (2015 amendment) governs sanctions for failure to preserve electronically stored information
4 claims
Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680 (1946), is the 1946 Supreme Court rule that when employer recordkeeping is inadequate, the employee's burden of proof drops to "just and reasonable inference" and the burden then shifts to the employer to disprove
Opinion by Murphy, J., pinpoint at 328 U.S. 680, 687–88.
The verbatim Mt. Clemens quote ("An employee has carried out his burden if he proves that he has in fact performed work for which he was improperly compensated and if he produces sufficient evidence to show the amount and extent of that work as a matter of just and reasonable inference. The burden then shifts to the employer to come forward with evidence of the precise amount of work performed or with evidence to negative the reasonableness of the inference to be drawn from the employee's evidence.")
Quote verified verbatim against Cornell LII opinion text.
Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, 577 U.S. 442 (2016), extended the Mt. Clemens rule to class actions — representative evidence becomes admissible at class certification when the employer's recordkeeping failure makes individualized proof impractical
Opinion by Kennedy, J. Holding affirmed the 8th Circuit; representative evidence (Dr. Mericle's donning/doffing study) admissible because Tyson's recordkeeping failure made individualized proof impractical, expressly grounded in Mt. Clemens.
Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, 220 F.R.D. 212 (S.D.N.Y. 2003), is the leading preservation-duty case — the duty to preserve attaches when litigation is reasonably anticipated
The article correctly cites Zubulake IV (220 F.R.D. 212) for the preservation-duty framework. Zubulake V (229 F.R.D. 422) is the related counsel-monitoring opinion (not cited in the article body, which is correct given the framework focus).
4 claims
Tyson Foods's pork-processing donning/doffing class action produced approximately a $2.9 million jury verdict, doubled to approximately $5.8 million in total FLSA recovery under the liquidated-damages provision
Cross-checked with the off-the-clock-work-by-state fact-check (verified 2026-05-23) which records jury verdict $2,892,378.70 doubled to final judgment $5,785,757.40. Article phrasing ("approximately $2.9M" doubled to "approximately $5.8M in total FLSA recovery") matches both reports.
California Labor Code §226(f) imposes a $750 penalty for failure to honor a §226(c) records request
Statute verbatim: "...to recover a seven-hundred-fifty-dollar ($750) penalty from the employer."
Colorado C.R.S. §8-4-103(4.5) imposes up to $250 per employee per month for recordkeeping violations, capped at $7,500
CDLE INFO #3A guidance confirms $250/emp/mo and $7,500 cap.
Washington SHB 1308 imposes graduated statutory damages of $250 (past 21 days), $500 (past 28 days), $1,000 (past 35 days), plus a $500 catch-all penalty
Tier 3 used (law-firm analyses) because the underlying bill text on the Washington Legislature site was not directly fetched; both Ogletree and Littler analyses independently confirm the same amounts.
3 claims
No major federal §516 amendments through May 2026; DOL WHD continues to enforce §516 as a routine part of every Tier-1 wage-hour investigation, with no proposed amendment to the 3-year payroll / 2-year time-card windows on the regulatory agenda
The eCFR text of §516.5 and §516.6 is unchanged in the operative retention windows; no proposed rulemaking on Part 516 retention is currently active.
Washington SHB 1308 became effective July 27, 2025
Multiple independent law-firm analyses (Ogletree, Littler) confirm the July 27, 2025 effective date.
ERIA was signed in December 2024 and codifies the 6-year SOL for ACA §4980H assessments imposed after December 31, 2024
ERIA is Public Law 118-168 (govinfo.gov compilation). Multiple law-firm summaries (Epstein Becker Green, Chamberlain Hrdlicka, Bass Berry Sims, Groom Law Group, Stinson) confirm December 2024 enactment and the post-12/31/2024 effective date.
65 unique sources cited across the report — click to audit any claim directly against its evidence.
Three claims are marked ⚠ Partial and require attention to caveats already reflected in the article — none require revision:
Every claim above is anchored to a clickable source — click any to verify what we said directly against the evidence.
See our fact-checking methodology for the standards this report follows.
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