Webinar: How to Stay Compliant With Labor Law Posting Requirements

Susannah Forbes | Human Resources Business Partner, CommPayHR

Susannah brings extensive HR expertise helping our clients navigate HR compliance, workforce management and employee relations with practical, business-focused guidance.

Brittany Bordeleau | Strategic Partnership Manager, PosterElite

Specializing in labor law poster compliance, Brittany helps employers understand and meet evolving federal, state, and local posting requirements across onsite, remote, and hybrid work environments.

Susannah Forbes:

Welcome everyone, and thank you so much for joining us today. We’re excited to have you here for our session on how to stay compliant with labor law posting requirements. This is an increasingly important topic as the workplace continues to evolve across onsite, remote, and hybrid environments. My name is Susannah Forbes, and I’m the HR lead business partner at Commonwealth Payroll & HR. I’m joined by Brittany Bordeleau, a strategic partnership manager at PosterElite. Together, our goal today is to simplify a topic that often feels complicated and overwhelming and give you clarity on what your organization must do to stay compliant year round. So with that, I’m going to let Brittany take it away.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Thank you, Susannah. So we also have some teammates working behind the scenes to play Vanna White, so we’re going to be engaging everybody as we walk through this today. So hi guys. Yes, thank you. My name is Brittany Bordeleau. PosterElite has actually been the leading poster compliance partner to the payroll and HCM industry for north of 14 years. And our focus in this channel really allowed PosterElite to innovate and modernize poster compliance. Our trusting affiliate partners like Commonwealth Payroll & HR, have allowed us to help more than one million businesses get compliant. Perfect. So when we think about compliance, today we’re going to focus on how to stay compliant with complex labor law posting requirements. Now, this modern hybrid workplace consists of onsite employees who work out of a traditional brick and mortar, a physical work site, we’re all very, very familiar, and a remote or hybrid work site employee. And that umbrella is actually much, much larger than many realize. A remote or hybrid employee could be somebody working from a home office. It could be a home healthcare worker that’s going job site to job site. It could be a landscaper that’s going yard to yard. Really, it’s anybody that’s working from a non-traditional work site that could be classified as a non-traditional work site employee.

Awesome. Okay. So when we think about a labor law poster, and what is a labor law poster? We think about a quilt. So when we’re thinking about this quilt and we’re assembling all of these postings or notices or patches, if we’re following that quilt analogy, each one of those is released by a different level of government, whether it’s federal, state, county, city. And some of these postings are very well known. They’re talked about in the news like minimum wage, FMLA that directly affect your business. But others, nobody even knows that they exist. And it’s still the employer’s obligation to display them current and up to date. Now, employers can search up to 30 different websites to try to find these postings. There’s very little guidance. There’s literally no instruction. Half the times the postings on these websites are outdated and obsolete. When the governing agency creates the labor law posting, they also specify the size, the format, the font, the color contrast combination, the layout. All of this is so meticulous and so regulated that if you as an employer try to make shift this thing on your own, it’s very, very, very tricky.

Next slide. Perfect. Now, how do we display labor law postings? So first off, all businesses in the US are legally required to display current, state, federal, and local level notices. If you have one paid employer more. It’s not like there’s a minimum number of employees for this to apply. If you have one paid employer or more, you are required to post these postings. Now, the notices must be hung in an unlocked, unblocked area. So those are the two keywords that you want to keep front of mind when you’re thinking about where to display labor law postings. When I say unlocked, this means a kitchen, a break room, next to a time clock, which Commonwealth also offers. They really need to be front and center so that everybody walking through that facility can see them. When I say unblocked, it’s just that. You can’t stack boxes in front of them or assemble a rack in front of them. They really need to be visible, not only to employees, but applicants as well.

Now, if you are a business with multiple locations, which is very common, you cannot just display labor law postings at headquarters or corporate, and then all the other locations are good to go. Legally, each location requires their own labor law postings to be displayed. And unfortunately, failure to post current notices can not only result in hefty fines, but it also increases the seriousness of an employee lawsuit. It just puts your business under scrutiny that you really don’t want to have to deal with. And these fines can actually vary greatly depending on state, agency, or case.

Next slide. I just want to remind everybody to please use the chat feature. So if you have any questions at all throughout, feel free to drop them in the chat and we’re going to address those at the end. Now, when we’re talking about fines, unfortunately, these are things that you might receive that you can’t actually plan for like an accident in the workplace, an employee lawsuit, an EEOC or a labor board inquiry. These things happen at random. The EEOC posting actually increased its fine potential to nearly $700 in 2025. And a few years prior to that, the EEOC posting added a QR code. So with that QR code on the actual posting, an employee can scan it and directly submit a complaint against their employer to the EEOC, which then triggers an inquiry and audit. So again, it’s just 10Xing your exposure, which we’re trying to mitigate. And when we talk about an accident in the workplace, so unfortunately, this is actually how PosterElite became a business.

So our founder, Paul Abel, comes from the franchise industry and at one of his bagel commissaries, there was an employee mopping up the floor and another employee cleaning the slicer. And he did not have lockout tagout equipment, which is an OSHA and safety requirement for a facility that has that type of machinery. So unfortunately, the employee cleaning the slicer actually amputated their finger because the one cleaning the floor plugged that sucker in. So obviously directly to the emergency room, they went. The emergency room notified OSHA. So Paul had a surprise audit, surprise visit the next morning, and the auditor showed up and he asked why Paul didn’t report the accident. And Paul apologized. He didn’t know he needed to. And then the auditor asked to see Paul’s labor law poster. And Paul thought this was an odd request, but again, multi-franchise business owner, super kind man, nothing to hide. Walks the auditor over to the poster, and the auditor points to the OSHA notice, which is one of those panels or patches on the poster. And they say, “Well, it states right here in the OSHA notice that you have to notify OSHA within a certain amount of time of an accident occurring.” And again, Paul totally apologized, didn’t know he needed to do so. And then the auditor kindly pointed out that the labor law poster was outdated. It was old. And then this just opens a can of worms.

So then they asked to see a first aid kit, which is totally empty like every business, so don’t feel bad. And then they asked to see a written safety plan and Paul’s like, “Oh, I got this one.” No, he had a policy manual, which are two very, very different documents. Long story short, Paul got a citation for over $60,000, and this is pushing 20 years ago now, so I could only imagine that would probably be $200,000 in today’s day and age. It is not worth it, you guys. It is not worth not complying. It is not worth not making your employees feel warm and fuzzy and safe to come to work. It’s just not worth it. And again, that’s why Commonwealth cares to educate you guys on this stuff.

Now, when we’re thinking about why now, which parlays from when Posters come into play, first off, high frequency of changes. There have been over labor law postings, 180 … Can’t read. 180 labor law postings that have changed in the last 12 months alone. This is nationwide, so it might not directly affect you, but most likely you’re in one of those states that had a posting change. Every time a labor law posting changes, it’s the employer’s responsibility to update it. So that falls on your shoulders along with a laundry list of things that you have to pay attention to. In addition, why now? The federal budget increased by $13 billion. Yes, billion, not million, a few years back. And the intent of that budget is ROI. They have now increased federal bodies to enforce these employment laws. Obviously, the government makes money when you guys are out of compliance. Lastly, lawsuits and employee disputes. All it takes is one disgruntled employee to file a lawsuit, and it can be 10s of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Everybody’s uncle thinks that they’re a lawyer. Everybody’s trying to get a piece of that pie. So again, our intent is just to educate you guys and potentially mitigate that risk.

Now, when we’re thinking about how … Next slide, please. Perfect. I know there’s a little lag. When we’re thinking about how … Oh, back one. Over zealous. I know there’s that slight little lag, so just head back one. So when we’re thinking about how we actually comply, Commonwealth has a comprehensive way of helping you guys navigate this. So when we think about physical work sites … Again, we’re all pretty aware the legislation from physical work site compliant is from the ’70s and ’80s. It’s been around a minute. A lot of employers don’t understand it or don’t understand how to comply with it, but it’s not new.

When we think about that bucket, it is now augmented with this whole new hybrid workforce. And again, these are brand new legislations and brand new requirements, but funny enough, the actual risk is the exact same for both, like the actual requirements. So when a physical poster needs to be hung in a break room in that unlocked, unblocked area, you are basically continuously providing labor law postings to your onsite workforce. The law is exactly the same for anybody working in a remote or hybrid capacity. The difference is you have one break room, maybe two, so your risk exposure is mitigated. With remote employees, you could have 10s of hundreds of employees working from different places around the country, so your risk exposure just amplifies. So again, our goal is to mitigate that, educate you guys, and show you how to easy button this.

Next line. Perfect. Okay. So this is the physical labor law poster. This is what gets hung up next to that time clock. Commonwealths are a little unique. So first off, they pivoted from lamination to an eco-friendly synthetic paper a few years back. And what this has done is eliminated so much waste, you guys. By removing the lamination piece, not only are removing the actual lamination that ends up on the poster, but all of the excess waste that has to get cut off … I can’t even tell you how much. With the configuration of the poster, it is 21 by 50 inches. The sizing is intentional because about three years ago, all of the carriers, USPS, UPS, FedEx, instituted a tax for any packages that exceeded 21 inches in length. So to avoid you guys having to pay an arm and a leg, we reconfigured the size of the poster so it wouldn’t fall into that tariff bucket. Now, the poster itself is a state and federal all in one poster, meaning the top third of that poster is federal postings. That is blanketed for this entire country. It is the same regardless where your physical site is located. The bottom portion is state specific. So each one of those postings is going to vary depending on the state that the physical location is at. But this is going to be all in comprehensive. It’s one poster with both state and federal.

Now from PosterElite side of things, we have a labor law attorney on staff. We have a research team. We use AI. So we guarantee that these posters are attorney approved and up to date when they print and ship. And there are some cool features on the poster. So in the upper left corner, you’re going to have a QR code and yourself or anyone on your team can scan that QR code and your phone will turn bright red if the postings have changed in any way, shape or form since the poster was printed, or your phone will turn bright green, meaning that is the most up-to-date current version of that poster. So that’s pretty cool. It’s like a built-in cheat sheet. You can just scan it at any point in time with your normal smartphone.

And then in the upper right corner, there is a color coding legend. Go back for just one sec. I just want to finish that out. So in the upper right corner, there is a color coding legend. Each posting gets outlined in a specific color. You can see the effect going from top to bottom. So the legend will tell you if it’s a federal posting or a state posting, or maybe a posting only applies to a certain size employer, like if you have 50 or more employees. So the key in the upper right corner is amazing because it allows your employees to understand if an employment law actually applies to them or if one does not.

Now, with the federal and state labor law posting … This is perfect. It is unfortunately the employer’s responsibility to keep those postings updated. There have been five changes just in the state of Massachusetts in the past 12 months. So that drills down that broad 180 for you guys. So imagine having a million and one things to do day to day and still having to monitor all of these changes. It’s not going to happen. So Commonwealth offers an automated solution to check that box and take care of it for you guys. It’s called the e-update service. It protects a physical work site, and this is how it works. So super simple. With that first poster, it gets drop shipped directly to your business. Anytime a change happens, federal, state, county, or city, we email you an addendum, a compliant PDF to download, print, and post on the wall next to your poster. Now again, this is fully comprehensive. So that process is going to happen, whether the change is federal, state, county, or city. And every 12 months, without you ever having to reach out to your rep or place another order, Commonwealth is going to automatically drop ship what we call an anniversary poster. That happens every 12 months like clockwork, and that is your essential reset button.

So at that point, you take down the old poster, you take down any addendums you’ve printed throughout the 12 months, and you start fresh with a brand new all encompassed poster for the next rolling 12 months. Now we back this entire solution with a $25,000 we pay the fine guarantee. We have stake in this game. We don’t want you to focus on this. We want you to know that not only is payroll being taken care of, HR being taken care of, but compliance is also being taken care of.

Now, when it comes to the pay as you go model, that literally means month to month. So super flexible. There’s no real risk, you guys. If a location opens up tomorrow, you can activate it. If you unfortunately or intentionally close a physical site the next day, you can terminate it. So this is designed to be very flexible to layer into the way that you guys are running your business day to day. Now, this is brand new. So if you guys have questions about this, please feel free to drop them into the chat. We’ll answer everything at the end. And the goal of today really is to go over content. So all of the pricing and stuff will be discussed via Susannah after the fact. And if there’s any specific compliance scenarios that you want us to run through, feel free to drop those in the chat as well.

So next slide. We’re actually going to pivot now. So what we’ve talked about thus far in that segment was a physical brick and mortar, a physical work site, but that’s not the reality. There has been a huge shift to remote work. With COVID, that unfortunately accelerated that shift. But what we see now is 56% of companies allow for some type of remote work. 54% of people would love to be working fully remote, and 41% of people would actually prefer a hybrid schedule. Now, 93% of people agree that working remotely has positively impacted their mental health. And with this progressive accelerated growth over the last decade, it has forced innovation by our government, which is wild to say. That never happens, but unfortunately or fortunately it has.

So next slide. There are brand new regulations just based on this modern hybrid workforce that many of us are experiencing. So in December of 2020, it is now an employer obligation to provide labor law postings to those working outside of an office. Now, prior to December 2020, people working outside of an office weren’t exempt from labor laws. There just was no formal legislation obligating an employer to do so. As of December 2020, regardless of what state you are located in, because this is a federal requirement, employers are now responsible for providing labor law postings directly to employees outside of an office.

Next slide. New York did something special. They just doubled down on this whole thing. So in the state of New York, even if you have just employees in the state of New York, but employers in the state of New York are now legally obligated to provide electronic labor law postings to all employees. So New York’s mandate has nothing to do with working remotely, working on site. In the state of New York all employers are now legally obligated to provide electronic labor law postings to their entire workforce. Now, this is in addition to the physical poster being hung up in the break room or the kitchen or next to that time clock. This is not instead of. So again, guys, it’s just an added layer of complexity.

So with that, Commonwealth has created a brand new solution. And we’ll head to that next slide. Perfect. So with those complexities, again, forces innovation, not just with labor law posting compliance, but they have a really awesome scheduling module if you guys aren’t using that yet. They as is in Commonwealth. So there’s a variety of your business that’s going to be touched by this remote workforce, not just labor law posting compliance, but that’s what I’m going to really focus on next. So as an employer, you can mail a physical poster to a remote employee and expect them to hang it up in their kitchen. They’re not going to do it. You could email a PDF to a remote employee, which is fine. It checks the box, but you’re creating more work for yourself because that PDF is stagnant. It’s not evergreen. So the next time that posting changes, first of all, you’re going to have to monitor it, and then you’re going to have to email your employee another PDF. So that becomes a little tricky. The third thing that a lot of people are doing is an intranet. If you have some type of an internet, which is great, but again, if you’re uploading a physical stagnant PDF to an intranet site, you’re still creating additional work for yourself down the road.

So with all of that in mind, Commonwealth … The next slide. Has launched a really, really simple and effective way to comply with these new digital requirements, and it’s called the ePosterCenter. So with the ePosterCenter, it is an API enabled link that is actually accessed directly by the employee, but because it’s API enabled, it is continuously up-to-date. Anytime a change happens, federal, state, city, county, it is up-to-date instamatically. So anytime an employee attempts to view a posting in this ePosterCenter, it’s always the most current version.

Now, when employee lands here, they’re going to put their zip code in the filter by cell, hit enter, and that is going to narrow it down so the employee only sees the postings that apply to them and where they’re working from. So again, guys, this has nothing to do with where your physical location is at or your main location is at. This is going to be custom to those employees that you have working from anywhere or just that extra level of compliance. Now, the DOL and OSHA require that it’s beyond reasonably easy, so that filter by cell in the center of the screen is key to checking that compliance box, but to the right of that, you’ll see a dropdown menu. That is a comprehensive view. So if you ever want to see what’s going on in an entire state, you also have that availability, that access. The ePosterCenter is also bilingual. So you’ll see in the upper right corner, it toggles very easily from English to Spanish, depending on the employee’s preferred language. And right below that, there is a sort buy box. So this can be viewed alphabetically or chronologically, again, however the employee prefers to engage with it.

Now, below these all businesses, where you see here, it says all businesses in that parentheses six. If we were to have the actual app open and you were to scroll down, you would see specialized notices. So at the federal level, that’s federal contractors, that’s E-Verify. At the state level, that’s industry-specific size, specific sector-specific, hazardous chemicals. Literally any posting that any employee would need in any state, in any county, in any city would be accessible through this link. It is the largest repository of data that our company’s ever created, and Commonwealth has made it so, so easy for you guys to just access it and employee engagement. And of course, this digital service is also backed by our same $25,000 we pay the fine guarantee. So if you guys were to endure any type of an audit or a fine and it was caused by improper content, we would of course step in and pay that fine.

Now, next slide. So what we’ve done to make this even easier is married the two products together. So we take the e-update service, which protects the physical work site, and we take the ePosterCenter, which is a catchall for everything else, and we marry them together to create one comprehensive hybrid solution. Now again, guys, this is new. So if you have any questions about anything, please drop them in the chat. But with this, you’ll not only get the physical poster to hang on the physical work site, you’ll also get the digital link to ensure that all employees, regardless of where they’re working from, have access to the correct postings. And just to give you some context there, it aligns with payroll tax. So if you’re having different payroll tax zip codes and things, you’re also going to have different labor law postings. That’s just an easy way to think about who and what might need what. But this is going to be the easiest way to just have both of those completely taken care of and automated without you having to then follow up and do anything after the fact. So I’m going to pause there and I’m going to ask Susannah to grace us with her presence.

Susannah Forbes:

Hello.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Hi. So I know that was a lot of content, guys, but hopefully it was easy to digest and fun. So are there any questions that we can tackle as a group?

Susannah Forbes:

Let’s see. Let’s see. Any questions yet in the chat? Please make sure to put your questions in the chat if you have any.

Brittany Bordeleau:

And these can be specific. We have time, guys. If you have a specific scenario you want to run through, if you have anything at all that we talked about that you want to just ask, I’m here.

Susannah Forbes:

And certainly if questions come about after the fact, not in this, you can reach out to myself or if you are a current client, you can reach out to your customer service and support specialist and they can provide you this information as well. We’ll be deploying some email campaigns to give clients information about this hybrid model that we’re deploying.

Brittany Bordeleau:

For sure.

Susannah Forbes:

I don’t think we have any questions.

Brittany Bordeleau:

It was just that easy to understand guys.

Susannah Forbes:

I know.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Okay.

Susannah Forbes:

We’ll just give you another 30 seconds, but I think we’re good. Well, Brittany, thank you so much. Oh, we do. We have a hands up.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Okay, good.

Susannah Forbes:

But I don’t see the question.

Brittany Bordeleau:

So instead of the chat, if you guys do use the submit a question box, you have both routes. Whichever is easier.

Susannah Forbes:

Yes. You won’t be able to ask a question. The mics aren’t turned on, but certainly you can submit a question.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Oh, sorry. I should have specified. Yeah. Go ahead and type those questions into the questions box.

Susannah Forbes:

Can you get the online poster service, but not the physical poster? Yes, you can. You can subscribe to just the ePosterCenter.

Brittany Bordeleau:

100%. What I will say though, from a legal standpoint, from a regulatory standpoint, if you have a physical work site, you cannot just get the ePosterCenter. If you have a physical work site at this point in time, you are still legally obligated to display the physical poster on site. You cannot just apply the digital postings to onsite employees, just to clarify. But you totally can order them separately if you’re remote only.

Susannah Forbes:

Yep.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Awesome.

Susannah Forbes:

So let’s see. Just reading another question that we have. We have virtual employees in multiple states and some of the forms have blank spaces for specific company name and address. How are those provided to you so that the employees can see the poster with the employer information filled out?

Brittany Bordeleau:

Great question. So we call those customizable fields and in the ePosterCenter, it is not standard. There is a little I with an information that tells the employee to reach back out to you guys for that data. But if it’s important to you and Susannah likes you, we can totally hook you up with a custom link that will allow you to pre-populate your custom information. So There’s two routes that you can go. It really depends on your preference.

Susannah Forbes:

Great. Thank you, Lindy. Any other questions?

Brittany Bordeleau:

Those are good ones, guys. Feel free to use the chat or the question box. If you have any specific questions about your business.

Susannah Forbes:

Again, for more information, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Oh, we have another one coming in. Let’s see. Sole proprietor in Mass, two employees and home offices travel between Arizona, California and Mass. No poster possible for the two remote workers. Will the online system satisfy compliance requirements?

Brittany Bordeleau:

Literally perfect. You couldn’t ask for a better solution. You would not need the physical e-update service. You would just need the e-posterCenter. It would have Arizona, Mass and California built in. So they could potentially put their zip code any date from wherever they’re working and see what they needed to see. So that ePosterCenter would be literal perfection for your specific scenario.

Susannah Forbes:

And certainly from a pricing perspective, Kathleen, it does not vary by business, not the type of business you’re in. So for pricing, certainly feel free to reach out to me and we can have that conversation.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Love it.

Susannah Forbes:

Let’s see. Good questions. Okay. Is there a way to track that employees have actually reviewed the poster?

Brittany Bordeleau:

Good question. So that is not actually a requirement. You would never do a field trip into your break room with your employees and be like, “Hey guys, here’s the poster.” You just wouldn’t do that, and it’s not legally required. So with the digital link, the OSHA requirement is that the postings are continuously provided. So your employer obligation is to give them the link. What they do with the link is up to them, but you have fulfilled your employer obligation. Now, we have found that making it open where you don’t need 2FA, you don’t need to log in, first of all, that complies with what OSHA and the DOL need, which is beyond reasonably easy. And second, it encourages more engagement with employees because once you start password protecting and tracking and analytics, you just create more complexities and more friction and frictionless is way better. So no, the system does not track it, but that’s really because you don’t need to.

Susannah Forbes:

That’s a great question.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Yeah.

Susannah Forbes:

We’ll just give it another 30 seconds. If anyone else has one, please feel free to submit it. Okay. Well, thank you everyone so much for your time today, Brittany. That was awesome. Great information. Good information for clients to understand from a compliance perspective, how needed this poster service is. So please feel free to reach out to myself or again, if you’re a current client, your customer service and support specialist if you have any questions.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Thank you guys.

Susannah Forbes:

So thanks so much. Have a good day. Enjoy.

Brittany Bordeleau:

Thank you for having me.

Susannah Forbes:

Bye-bye.