Federal & State Regulations | Recordkeeping - New Jersey

State Info

Summary of differences between federal and state regulations

Federal

The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require employers to allow employees access to their personnel files. This access is generally a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee’s representative). However, while federal law does not, some state laws require employers to allow employees access to their files. Employers need to comply with the state laws.

Federal OSHA requires that employers must allow employees and their designated representatives to inspect and/or copy records pertaining to exposure to hazardous substances. Access must be provided in a reasonable time, place, and manner. Access must be provided within 15 days working days. No costs may be incurred for the first provision, but subsequent provisions may be charged reasonable, nondiscriminatory administrative costs.

Employees and former employees must be guaranteed access to their individual OSHA 301 forms. Employee representatives will be provided access to the “information about the case” section of the OSHA 301 form in establishments where they represent employees.

The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires employers to allow employees to inspect and/or obtain a copy of any of their own protected health information that is used to make decisions about them. Employers must provide access within 30 days of receiving a request if the information is maintained or accessible onsite. If not, employers have 60 days to act. Employers must arrange for a mutually convenient time and place for employee access. Employers may charge reasonable, cost-based fees for copying information, but not for retrieving or handling the information or processing a request.

State

Records to be kept on file
Wage and Hour/Payroll	Payroll Every employer shall keep records which contain the following information with respect to each employee: Name; Address; Birth date if under the age of 18; Total hours worked each day and each workweek; and Earnings, including the regular hourly wage, gross to net amounts with itemized deductions, and the basis on which wages are paid. NJ Admin. Code §12:56-4.1
	Tipped employees In addition to the records above, employers must keep payroll or other records containing the total gratuities received by each employee during the payroll week. NJ Admin. Code §12:56-4.6
	Food or lodging records Every employer, who claims credit for food or lodging as a cash substitute for employees who receive food or lodgings supplied by the employer, shall maintain and preserve records substantiating the cost of furnishing such food or lodgings. Such records shall include the nature and amount of any expenditures entering into the computation of the fair value of the food or lodging and shall contain the date required to compute the amount of the depreciated investment in any assets allocable to the furnishing of the lodgings, including the date of acquisition or construction, the original cost, the rate of depreciation, and the total amount of accumulated depreciation on such assets. The amount of detail of the records shall be sufficient to enable a reviewer to verify the nature of the expenditure and amount by reference to the basic payroll records required to be kept. NJ Admin. Code §12:56-4.9
	Additions to wages If additions to wages paid so affect the total cash wages due in any workweek as to result in the employee receiving less in cash than the minimum hourly wage, or if the employee works in excess of 40 hours a week, the employer shall maintain records showing those additions to wages by reason of gratuities or food, or lodgings paid on a workweek basis. NJ Admin. Code §12:56-4.10
	Retention period The records required to be kept in the sections above must be kept for six years. NJ Admin. Code §12:56-4.4
	Wage/hour Every employer of employees subject to the state's wage and hour law, must keep a true and accurate record of: The hours worked by each employee, and The wages paid to each employee. Employers needn't keep records of the hours worked by: Outside salesmen; Any person employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity; Buyers of poultry, eggs, cream, milk or other perishable commodities in their natural or raw state; or Homeworkers. NJ Stat. §34:11-56a20
	Every employer shall: Notify employees at the time of hiring of the rate of pay and of the regular payday designated by the employer; Notify employees of any changes in the pay rates or paydays prior to the time of such changes; Furnish each employee with a statement of deductions made from his/her wages; and Make such records as to the employees, including wage and hour records, and preserve such records. Employers do not need to keep records of the number of hours worked by any person employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity or in the capacity of outside salesman 18 years of age or older where the wages of such person or persons are not determined by the number of hours worked. NJ Stat. §34:11-4.6
	Public contractors' records Contractors and subcontractors engaged in work on public contracts must keep an accurate record showing the following information with respect to each worker employed in connection with the public work: Name, Craft or trade, and Actual hourly rate of wages paid. Such records shall be preserved for two years from date of payment. NJ Stat. §34:11-56.29
	State building contracts Each contractor and subcontractor shall keep an accurate record containing certain information for each worker employed to perform building services pursuant to a state contract or subcontract. The records must show the employee's: Name, Classification, Actual hourly rate of wages, and Any benefits paid. These records must be preserved for two years after the date of payment. NJ Stat. §34:11-56.61
	Solid waste contractors' records Contractors and subcontractors who employ less than 1,000 employees in New Jersey and who engage in the work of the collection or transportation of solid waste for a public body must keep accurate records showing the following information for each individual engaged in the collection and transportation work done under public contract: Name; Actual hourly rate of wages; and Actual daily, overtime, and weekly hours worked. These records shall be preserved for two years from the date of payment. NJ Stat. §34:11-68
	Homeworkers Each homeworker employer must keep a record of: All persons engaged in industrial home work directly or indirectly for or in behalf of such employer, All places where such persons work, All articles or materials directly or indirectly distributed to such persons, All articles or materials manufactured by such persons, The net cash wages received by each home worker and such piecework rates at which each home worker is compensated, and All independent contractors to whom he has furnished materials to be manufactured by industrial home work. Additionally, any person, by himself or by his agent, contracting for the manufacturing, altering, repairing, finishing, or distributing of any goods whatsoever, shall keep a register of the names and addresses (plainly written in English) of the persons to whom the article or goods are given, and the place where the articles are to be so manufactured, altered, repaired, finished, or distributed. NJ Stat. §§ 34:6-136.11, 34:6-130
	Apparel industry Each manufacturer and contractor in the apparel industry shall keep accurate records regarding all of its production employees during the preceding three years. The records shall include: The name and address of each production employee and the age of each production employee who is a minor; The number of hours of work and the time of day that work begins and ends for each production employee; The wages, wage rates, and piece rates paid during each payroll period; and Contract worksheets indicating the price per unit agreed upon between manufacturer and contractor. NJ Stat. §34:6-153
	Health care facility employee overtime Health care facility employers must establish a system for keeping records of circumstances where employees are required to work in excess of an agreed to, predetermined and regularly scheduled daily work shift, or in excess of 40 hours per week. The records shall include, but not be limited to: The employee's name and job title; The name of the employee's work area or unit; The date the overtime was worked, including start time; The number of hours of overtime mandated; The employee's daily work schedule for any week in which the employee is required to work excess time; The reason why the overtime was necessary; A description of the reasonable efforts that were exhausted prior to requiring overtime. This shall include: The names of employees contacted to work voluntary overtime; A description of efforts to secure per diem staff; and A list of the temporary agencies contacted; and The signature of individual authorizing the required mandatory overtime. These records must be kept a period of two years. NJ Stat. §8:43E-8.6
	Unemployment Whether or not they are subject to unemployment compensation law, employing units are required to keep the following records for each worker: Full name; Address; Social Security number; and Remuneration paid for each pay period, showing separately: Money remuneration, including commissions and bonuses; Reasonable cash value of remuneration paid by the employer in any medium other than money, including room and board, meals, tips; and Special payments such as bonuses, gifts, etc., which have been paid during the pay period but which relate to employment in a prior period. Payments are regarded as special payments if the amount was not determinable in the prior period. Show separately: Money payments; Reasonable cash value of other remuneration; The nature of such payments; The period during which the services were performed for which special payments were paid; and The date on which the employee was hired, rehired or returned to work after a temporary layoff, the date that individual was separated from employment, and the reason for the separation. The records must also show, for each pay period: The beginning and ending dates of each pay period; The total amount of wages paid to each employee in each pay period; and The total remuneration paid to all such individuals combined, separately by money and other remuneration, in each pay period and in all pay periods within each quarter. These records must be kept readily accessible at the New Jersey place of business of the employing unit and must be preserved for the current calendar year and for the four preceding calendar years. NJ Stat. §43:21-52; NJ Admin. Code §§ 12:16-2.1, 12:16-2.2, 12:16-2.4; New Jersey's Unemployment Employer Handbook: Chapter I, Section 1
Accessible Records	Toxic material exposure Employees and their representatives are entitled to observe monitoring or measuring of potentially toxic materials or other harmful physical agents. They are also entitled to access the records of such monitoring and measuring. Each employee or former employee shall be informed of and have access to all records which will indicate his own exposure to toxic materials or harmful physical agents and the properties, characteristics, and effects thereof. NJ Stat. §34:6A-40
Accessible Records	Hazardous substance fact sheets and environmental surveys Every employer shall establish and maintain a central file at his facility in which he shall retain a workplace survey for the facility, appropriate hazardous substance fact sheets, and, if applicable, a copy of the environmental survey for the facility. An employer shall provide an employee with access to a workplace survey, appropriate hazardous substance fact sheets, and, if applicable, an environmental survey, within five working days of a request therefor. NJ Stat. §34:5A-12