Industry Insights
Are “Free” Labor Law Compliance Posters Free, Or Not?
A question we hear quite often is, “If I can download free state and federal labor law posters from the Internet, why would I purchase posters from a provider?” This is a fair question, indeed. Since many government agencies provide free 2018 labor law posters on their websites for download, this may seem like the most economical way to handle compliance at first glance. But here are some things to consider:
- The loss of time and labor spent searching for and printing required posters—trust us, this can take A LOT of time away from the bigger priorities of your business! This is especially true if your company has multiple locations, or employees that work on more than one floor in a building.
- Printing posters requires a large amount of ink and paper. We all know how costly printer supplies can become—but did you know some notices are required to be printed on specific sizes and colors of paper? Others are required to be printed in colored ink, not just black-and-white.
- Printable posters can tear, fade, or get lost—thus you would need to replace them, which would require additional ink and paper.
- The appearance of printable posters can make walls look unsightly and cluttered—and even unprofessional.
- The law requires some notices to be protected from altering or defacing. Certain industries require you to maintain cleanable surfaces—such as the food service industry or medical field. This means you’d have to spend time and money on laminating posters or putting the notices behind glass.
- Unless you are tracking labor laws on a daily basis and posting new notices as soon as mandatory changes occur, you could easily be out of compliance without knowing it.
- Your company could be held liable if the information you posted is not up-to-date or correct.
If all of the above sounds like a lot of responsibility and you’d rather spend time managing your business instead of your compliance, a trusted labor law poster provider (or annual subscription service) may be for you.
