Federal Labor Law Poster Requirements: The Complete 2026 Employer Checklist

Most poster checklists answer a question employers are not actually asking. The list of federal labor law posters is the easy part; any search returns it. The hard part is figuring out which posters apply to your business, because several depend on how many people you employ, whether you hold federal contracts, and what industry you are in. Two businesses on the same street can owe different walls.

Picture a design studio that pulled a generic poster checklist off the internet back when it had 12 employees. The breakroom wall now includes a Davis-Bacon construction wage notice the studio will never need, since it has never held a federal contract. A few hires later the company quietly crossed 15 employees, and the one poster that change actually required, the EEO Know Your Rights notice, is the one missing from the board. Over-posted and under-compliant at the same time: that is what a copied list produces.

This checklist is built around that problem. It splits the federal labor law poster requirements into three tiers, the core set most private employers must display, the contractor-only notices, and the situational ones, with the coverage threshold and the 2026 penalty stated next to each, so you can mark what applies and skip what does not.

What “required” actually means

A poster is required for your business only if you are covered by the statute behind it. Coverage varies. Some notices apply to nearly every employer, some kick in at a headcount, and some apply only to federal contractors or specific industries. That is why two businesses across the street from each other can owe different posters, and why a plain-language rundown of labor law poster requirements for employers is worth a look before you print anything.

The federal notices administered by the Department of Labor, plus the EEOC discrimination notice, are listed in one place on the DOL workplace posters page. The fastest way to confirm your exact federal set is the FirstStep Poster Advisor, which asks a few questions and returns only the posters you must display.

The core required posters (most private employers)

Start here. These are the federal notices most private employers will need to evaluate, with the coverage threshold and the 2026 penalty for each. Detailed entries follow the table.

Poster	Who must post	Governing law	Failure-to-post penalty (2026)
FLSA Minimum Wage	Employers with FLSA-covered employees (nearly all)	FLSA; 29 CFR 516.4	No direct fine
OSHA “It’s the Law”	Private employers in a business affecting commerce	OSH Act; 29 CFR 1903.2	Up to $16,550 per violation
EPPA (Polygraph)	Most private employers	EPPA; 29 CFR 801.42	Up to $26,262 per violation
USERRA	All employers	USERRA (VETS)	No fixed monetary posting fine
EEO “Know Your Rights”	Employers with 15+ employees	Title VII, ADA, GINA (EEOC)	Tolling exposure; no fixed fine under 15 employees; up to $698 per willful violation at 15+ employees
FMLA	Employers with 50+ employees, public agencies, and schools	FMLA; 29 CFR 825.300	$216 for willful failure to post

FLSA minimum wage poster

The federal minimum wage poster is required by nearly every employer with FLSA-covered employees. The governing rule is 29 CFR 516.4, and the DOL states there is no citation or penalty for failing to post it. The risk is indirect: a missing notice can extend an employee’s window to bring a wage claim. Treat it as mandatory anyway.

OSHA “Job Safety and Health: It’s the Law” poster

Required for private employers in a business affecting commerce under 29 CFR 1903.2. It does not apply to federal or state government employers. OSHA fines employers up to $16,550 for a posting violation. Employers in OSHA-approved state-plan states must post the state equivalent instead.

EPPA polygraph notice

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act notice applies to most private employers. Posting violations fall under the Act’s general civil penalty, up to $26,262.

USERRA notice

Every employer must inform employees of their USERRA rights. There is no fixed monetary posting penalty, but the notice is universally required, so post it.

EEO “Know Your Rights” poster

The EEOC’s Know Your Rights poster is required once you reach 15 employees, the coverage threshold for Title VII, the ADA, and GINA. Below 15 employees those laws do not apply, so there is no posting requirement and no fixed fine. At 15 or more employees, a willful failure to post carries a civil penalty of up to $698 per violation, raised from $680 effective September 30, 2025, and a missing notice can also toll discrimination charge-filing deadlines. Both the fine and the tolling make this an easy one to get wrong the moment you cross the threshold.

FMLA poster

The FMLA poster (29 CFR 825.300) is required of private employers once they reach 50 employees, and also of public agencies and public and private schools regardless of headcount. A willful failure to post costs $216.

The 50-employee threshold deserves particular respect, because it is the line growing private employers most often cross without noticing. A frequent and avoidable pattern is treating FMLA posting as a future problem until the first leave request forces the issue, at which point the missing poster stops being a checklist item and becomes part of a live dispute.

Federal contractor posters (only if you hold covered contracts)

These posters apply to federal contractors and subcontractors, not to employers generally. If you do not hold a covered federal contract, you can skip this tier entirely. That distinction is exactly what trips up small employers who copy a generic checklist.

Contractor poster	When it applies	Source
Davis-Bacon (construction wage notice)	Federal or federally-assisted construction contracts over $2,000	DOL Davis-Bacon
Employee Rights on Government Contracts (SCA / CWHSSA / Walsh-Healey)	Federal service and supply contracts above the statutory thresholds	DOL SCA
Notification of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (E.O. 13496)	Federal contractors and subcontractors (NLRA rights notice)	DOL OLMS

Situational posters (industry or certificate-specific)

A final tier applies only in specific circumstances. Most employers will not need these, but check if any describe you:

• MSPA notice for agricultural employers and farm labor contractors who recruit, employ, or house migrant and seasonal workers.
• FLSA Section 14(c) notice for employers holding a certificate to pay workers with disabilities special minimum wages.
• H-2A notice for employers using the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program.

All of these, plus the core federal set, are downloadable free from the DOL workplace posters page.

Law versus reality: the checklist gap

The list looks tidy. How it plays out on a wall is less tidy.

What the rule says	What actually happens in practice
Display the posters your business is required to post.	Employers copy a generic list and post contractor notices that never applied while missing one tied to their headcount.
FMLA posting applies once you reach 50 employees.	A growing employer crosses 50 without noticing and only adds the poster after a leave dispute.
State-plan employers post the state OSHA poster, not the federal one.	Employers in state-plan states post the federal version and assume they are covered.
Posters must be current.	The right posters are up, but printed before the last wage or rule change, so they are technically stale.

The state-plan row in that table is the subtle one. More than twenty states operate their own OSHA-approved plans, and employers in those states must post the state version of the safety poster rather than the federal sheet. The federal poster looks right on the wall and is not, which makes this one of the easiest gaps to carry for years without knowing it.

2026 penalties tied to these posters

Federal penalties adjust each January under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. The 2026 adjustment was cancelled because the October 2025 shutdown stopped the inflation data the formula needs, so the Department of Labor confirmed the 2026 maximums match 2025. The figures below are the operative 2026 amounts with citations. A separate guide to labor law poster fines walks through how these escalate per employee, per location, and per day.

Poster / violation	2026 maximum penalty	Statutory / CFR citation	Source
OSHA posting requirement	$16,550 per violation	29 USC 666(i); 29 CFR 1903.15(d)(6)	OSHA
OSHA willful or repeated	$165,514 per violation	29 USC 666(a)	OSHA
EPPA (includes posting)	$26,262 per violation	29 USC 2005(a); 29 CFR 801.42	WHD
FMLA willful failure to post	$216 per offense	29 USC 2619(b); 29 CFR 825.300(a)	WHD
FLSA poster	No direct posting fine	29 CFR 516.4	DOL
EEO “Know Your Rights”	Up to $698 per willful violation (15+ employees); tolling risk	29 CFR 1601.30; Title VII 711(b)	Fed. Register

Where to get the posters free

The required federal notices cost nothing from the government. You do not need to buy them to be compliant.

1. Open the DOL workplace posters page and download the notices that apply to you.
2. Use the FirstStep Poster Advisor to confirm your exact federal set.
3. Get state notices from your state labor office.
4. Print, then post each notice where employees can readily see it.

Use the DOL posters page for the federal downloads. For state notices, contact your state labor office.

Employers who would rather not assemble and re-print these by hand often start from an attorney-reviewed federal labor law poster set instead.

The printable federal poster checklist

Copy this into your records. Mark each poster as required or not based on your size and contracts, then track the print date.

Poster	Applies to me?	Posted?	Print/revision date
FLSA Minimum Wage	[   ]	[   ]	________
OSHA “It’s the Law” (or state version)	[   ]	[   ]	________
EPPA (Polygraph)	[   ]	[   ]	________
USERRA	[   ]	[   ]	________
EEO “Know Your Rights” (15+ employees)	[   ]	[   ]	________
FMLA (50+ employees, public agencies, schools)	[   ]	[   ]	________
Contractor posters (if federal contracts)	[   ]	[   ]	________
Situational (MSPA / 14(c) / H-2A)	[   ]	[   ]	________

One honest caveat about this table: a checklist you fill out once and never revisit is not compliance, it is a snapshot. It goes stale the next time a wage figure or a rule changes, which is why the print-date column exists. The date is what turns a one-time exercise into a habit.

Common checklist mistakes

• Over-posting. Displaying contractor notices that do not apply, which clutters the board and signals you copied a list.
• Threshold blind spots. Crossing 15 or 50 employees without adding the EEO or FMLA poster.
• Wrong OSHA version. Posting the federal safety poster in a state-plan state that requires its own.
• Stale posters. Correct posters left up past a wage or rule change.

Employers who want changes handled automatically often use an annual workplace compliance subscription so a new law triggers a replacement rather than a missed update, and every wage and safety notice stays current on one board without manual reprints.

Conclusion

The right federal checklist for your business is probably shorter than the internet suggests, and it gets longer the day you cross 15 or 50 employees or sign your first federal contract. Confirm your exact set with the FirstStep Advisor rather than a generic list, post what applies at every location, and write the print date on each sheet.

Then make January a standing calendar event. Federal penalty figures and notice versions update at the start of the year, and the employers who stay compliant are simply the ones who look. The checklist above is the snapshot; the recheck is the compliance.

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