Understanding Labor Law Poster Fines and How to Avoid Them

Whether you have 30 locations or 1,200, a single missing poster could put your organization at risk of a labor law poster fine. But that’s not the only legal threat your locations could face. This article will cover other ways your organization could face fines and how to avoid them.  

Poster Updates Can Be a Complicated Business 

With 1,800+ postings to track annually, it’s easy to miss a new poster replacement at one of your locations. This is especially true if you’re manually tracking all these postings and ordering one-off posters. An updated poster could be missing at one of your locations for one of many reasons, including: 

• Inaccurately tracking the postings 
• Lost shipments  
• Not regularly checking for updates 
• Misplaced posters at the location level 

Updating posters accurately and quickly is crucial at both the corporate and location levels. HR teams need to prioritize monitoring and updating posters and keeping a centralized database of locations based on jurisdictional boundaries. Location-level employees must focus on replacing the updated poster efficiently.  

💡Did you know? GovDocs Labor Law Poster Update Program customers receive a monthly email including that month’s mandatory posting updates. This resource includes communication templates for corporate teams to notify location-level managers about posters that are on the way and to be on the lookout for them.   

🧠 The more you know! A national pet retail store cut down on their missing posters by 85%, reducing the costs of poster orders and fines for being out of compliance by using branded shipping labels. Our GovDocs Update Program automatically sends updated posters each month to your required locations. You can even add messages to your branded shopping labels to increase the chance it makes it to the right hands and on the wall.  

Improve Your Poster Accuracy  

You probably know that accurate location data is important for poster compliance. What you might not know is that using ZIP codes to determine a location’s compliance requirements isn’t always the best strategy and is often wrong altogether. 

One way to combat this is through a closer examination of your locations, especially in jurisdictions with complicated geographic boundaries. Use of latitude and longitude to pinpoint locations with rooftop accuracy is the best way to determine which legal jurisdictions apply to provide applicable labor law posters. 

💡Did you know? GovDocs provides “Planograms” which highlight each state’s required posters to ensure all locations receive the right ones! As an additional way to avoid fines, conduct internal audits at each of these locations. Here’s a resource that might help! 

Make Poster Placement a Priority 

According to regulations, you must display labor law posters in a location that is readily accessible by employees. Some posters are even required to be visible by applicants during the interview process. Popular places to hang posters include: 

• Breakrooms 
• Common areas 
• Near the restrooms 
• Interview locations 

Other locations that may seem ideal at first but are actually at a high risk for being out of compliance are areas such as: 

• A closed-off stairwell 
• Single floors in multi-floor buildings 
• Inside the restrooms 

You can visit the Department of Labor’s Frequently Asked Questions for more defined answers on where in your place of business you are required to hang your posters.