Kentucky Laws Requiring Retention of Employee Records

Child Labor Law

Requirements: Employers must keep employment permits on file for each employee under the age of 18.  In addition, they must maintain a register, separate from any other payroll record, with names, ages, and addresses of all employees under the age of 18.

Citation:Kentucky Revised Statutes Section 339.400

Discrimination - KY Commission on Human Rights

Requirements: Employers must keep records that might be relevant to whether unlawful practices have been or are being committed, including applications, resumes, hiring records, records related to promotion, demotion, layoff, or termination, the determinations of pay rates or other terms of compensation or benefits, and selection for training and apprenticeship.

Retention Period: Personnel records must be maintained for one year from the date of making the records or the personnel action involved, whichever is later.  In the event an employee is fired, his or her personnel records must be retained for at least 6 months after the date of termination.  If a discrimination complaint has been filed, records relating to similarly situated employees, as well as those of unsuccessful applicants, must be maintained until the complaint is resolved. Applicant records for apprenticeship training programs and requests for reasonable accommodations by persons with disabilities must be kept for two years.

Citations:Kentucky Revised States Section 344.250; Kentucky Administrative Regulations Chapter 104 Section 1.020

Health and Safety

Requirements: Employers must maintain records of any workplace health and safety activities they perform, which are prescribed by regulation. The record should include the activity, date, and the employees involved.

Citation:Kentucky Revised Statutes Section 338.161

Income Tax

Requirements: Employers must keep employee withholding exemption certificates and records showing the number of people employed during the year whose wages are subject to withholding, the periods of employment, and the amounts and date of pay.

Retention Period: Records must be retained for a minimum of four years from the date the withholding return is filed or the tax withheld by the employer is paid to taxing authorities, whichever is later.

Citations:Kentucky Revised Statutes Section 131.130 ; Kentucky Administrative Regulations Chapter 103 Section 18.090.

Contractors and Subcontractors with Public Contracts

Requirements: Employers must keep records of the name, hours, and wages paid to each worker employed in a public work job.

Retention Period: Documents must be retained for a minimum of one year after completion of the project.

Citation:Kentucky Revised Statutes Section 337.530

Unemployment Compensation

Requirements: Employers must, for each pay period, record each employee's starting and ending dates and total amount of wages paid, and the highest number of workers on any one day of each calendar week.  Each employee's name, social security number, wages and date of payment for the pay period, total wages payable for each calendar quarter, dates of hire and rehire, return to work, or termination must be recorded.  Employers have to record the amount of wages earned by each employee in a seven-day period or in a calendar week, the number of hours worked, the number of additional hours available, and rate of pay for additional hours.

Retention Period: Records related to each period must be retained for a minimum of two years. Records showing the employee's name, social security number, etc., must be retained for a minimum of six years.

Citation:Kentucky Revised Statutes Section 341.190.

Wage and Hour

Requirements: Employers must keep records of the wages paid to employees and each employee's daily and weekly hours each pay period.  The record should include the employee's full name, social security number, address (including zip code), date of birth if under the age of 18, gender, occupation, time of day and day of week on which the employee's workweek begins, hours worked each workday and workweek, regular rate of pay and total straight-time earnings, overtime excess compensation for the workweek, and total additions to or deductions from wages paid each pay period.

Retention Period: Documents must be retained for a minimum of one year.

Citations:Kentucky Revised Statutes Section 337.320; Kentucky Administrative Regulations Chapter 803 Section 1.066

Worker's Compensation

Requirements: Employers must keep records of all accidents causing disability of more than a day.  The record must be sent to the Workers' Compensation Board within one week after the employer has knowledge of the injury.  The report should contain the name, nature, and location of the employer's business, the name, age, sex, wages, and occupation of the employee, the date and hour of the accident causing the injury, and the nature and cause of the injury.

Citation:Kentucky Revised Statutes Section 342.038

Employee Access to Personnel Records