There are companies that want to sell you expensive workplace posters that you don’t need to purchase because they are available for free online. Many employers are afraid that they don’t know which employment notices must be visible in the workplace, so they fall for the marketing pitch to pay for these expensive commercial posters.

As a Texas employer, have you received advertising in the mail similar to the notice pictured here? Such notices appear official, and can feel almost threatening, with warnings of penalties and fines associated with an employer failing to post current state and federal employment posters in the workplace.

It is not necessary for a Texas employer to pay $84 for the poster offered here. While it is true that posting certain notices and information is legally required, employers need not pay any company for this information. Free copies of the required posters can be found from the websites of each of the federal or Texas agencies that require them. The Texas Workforce Commission has graciously gathered a list of these posters into one place for you here.

Not only are you out the money if you buy one of these expensive posters, but these for-profit posters could actually hurt you if they promise rights to your employees that the law does not give them (such as promising Family and Medical Leave rights if the company has less than 50 employees and isn’t required to provide Family and Medical Leave). You don’t want to obligate yourself to things the law doesn’t require you to provide. The poster “invoice” pictured here didn’t ask the size of the employer’s workforce and apparently was not tailored to the laws to which a particular employer was subject.

As of August 2015, the posters that you as a Texas employer must have on your bulletin board, depending on the size of your workforce, are as follows:

• Texas Payday law and Texas Unemployment Compensation Act poster: The Texas Workforce Commission provides this consolidated poster that is required to be posted by every Texas employer. It explains the actual paydays adopted by the employer and the employee’s rights to collect unemployment pay if the employee’s job is terminated without the employee committing misconduct. The Texas Payday law poster can be found here.
• Worker’s Compensation notices: Every private Texas employer, whether insured by worker’s compensation insurance, self-insured, or non-subscribing, must notify employees about whether they are covered by worker’s compensation insurance in all languages common to that workplace. The employer must also notify employees how to report workplace safety violations. A poster for each situation is available here through the Texas Department of Insurance or from your worker’s compensation insurance carrier.
• Employer’s Notification of Ombudsman Program to Employers: All employers participating in the workers’ compensation system should post this notice from the Office of Injured Employee Counsel’s (OIEC) Ombudsman Program in a location where each employee is likely to see it on a regular basis.

The federal government also requires some posters, but unless you are a federal contractor or federal subcontractor , you are in agriculture, you employ certain special needs individuals or meet another rare exception, here are the only federal posters you probably need to be concerned about posting (links to the following posters can be found on this page of the U.S. Department of Labor’s website):

• Occupational Health and Safety notice: Every employer has to post this notice about employee safety. It is also available from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
• Equal Employment Opportunity poster: You must post this if you have at least 15 names on your payroll (whether full-time or part-time). It provides the necessary notice language required under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is also available from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• Fair Labor Standards Act’s Minimum Wage poster: Every employer must put up this notice that tells employees what the minimum wage is if you are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (call your employment attorney if you don’t know whether you are covered or not).
• Family and Medical Leave Act notice: The federal Department of Labor requires that employers covered by the FMLA (those who employ 50 or more employees within 75 mile radius) post a notice that both applicants and employees can conspicuously see explaining FMLA rights.
• Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA): This poster explains the rights of each armed services member when employed by a private employer, both while the soldier is serving and when he or she returns to civilian employment. Every employer, whether the company employs service members or not, has to post this notice.
• Polygraph Protection Act poster: Almost all private employers, except certain security firms and those producing controlled substances, are prohibited from prescreening job applicants with polygraphs (lie-detector tests). The Wage and Hour division of the Department of Labor furnishes this notice about an employee’s rights to refuse to take a polygraph test except in ongoing investigations.