Records retention fails in both directions. Destroy too early and you have spoliation — records missing exactly when a claim, audit, or subpoena demands them. Keep everything forever and you preserve every stray comment for discovery while making the file you actually need impossible to find.
This quick guide puts the retention answer for each record type in one table: the period, the federal requirement with regulatory citation, the Texas requirement where it differs, and the best-practice note — hiring records at one year, payroll at three, I-9s on their hire-plus-three or termination-plus-one formula, OSHA logs at five, benefits plan records at six under ERISA, and more.
Who should use this reference
- Office managers who own the filing system nobody documented
- HR coordinators building a compliant retention policy
- Texas small businesses cleaning up decades of accumulated records
- Municipal and nonprofit administrators subject to records requests
What it helps prevent
- Records destroyed inside their required retention window
- I-9s retained wrong — or stored in personnel files where audits find everything
- Payroll records missing when a DOL or TWC claim reaches back years
- OSHA logs unavailable during the five-year on-site requirement
- Storage rooms of undifferentiated paper with no destruction schedule
What’s inside
- Retention table — record type, period, federal citation, Texas note
- Hiring records, applications, and job postings (1 year)
- I-9 forms — the 3-years-from-hire / 1-year-from-termination formula
- Payroll, timecards, and wage records (FLSA and Texas Labor Code)
- Leave, benefits (ERISA 6-year), OSHA logs (5-year), and training records
- Best-practice notes on separate storage and litigation holds
Before you process payroll, terminate, classify, deduct, or respond to a claim, get the decision reviewed.
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers, nonprofits, municipalities, and growing businesses fix the people systems behind recurring workplace problems. If this resource raised a risk flag, do not guess your way through the next step.