Do remote workers need labor law posters?
Yes. Posting requirements don't disappear when employees work from home. The U.S. Department of Labor treats electronic posting as an acceptable supplement to physical posters, not a replacement, in most cases. There is one federal exception: if every employee works remotely, a few specific posters can go electronic-only. State rules vary on top of that. To give remote employees digital access to every required notice and keep proof they saw them, use a platform like ePoster (https://edoceposter.com).
This post covers the federal rule, the remote-only exception, where states differ, and the practical way to handle all of it.
The Federal Rule, Plainly
The Department of Labor addressed this in Field Assistance Bulletin 2020-7. The short version: electronic posting supplements physical posting, it does not replace it. If you have a physical workplace, the posters stay on the wall. Sending a PDF or putting notices on your intranet is a good practice for remote staff, but for most employers it does not satisfy the posting requirement by itself.
The federal posters themselves are free from the DOL's poster page. Nobody needs to pay for the paper versions.
The Remote-Only Exception
There is a real exception, and it's narrow. Under the FLSA, FMLA, and EPPA, electronic-only posting is allowed when all three of these are true:
1. All of your employees exclusively work remotely. Not most, all.
2. Employees customarily receive information from you electronically.
3. Employees have readily available access to the electronic posting at all times.
A fully distributed company that runs on email and Slack and posts notices where everyone can reach them can qualify. A company with one office and forty remote workers cannot. The office keeps its physical posters, and the remote employees still need access to the notices.
State Rules Are Their Own Problem
Federal guidance only covers federal posters. Every state sets its own posting rules, and they don't match. Some states have said nothing about remote workers at all. A few have moved: Ohio passed Senate Bill 33, which explicitly allows digital posting of labor law notices. Most states sit somewhere in the silent middle, and silence is not permission.
Check your state's labor department before you decide anything is optional. And remember that posters follow where the employee works, not where your headquarters sits. One remote employee in another state means that state's posters apply to them.
Where We Land on This
Our position: treat digital as your delivery and proof layer, not a loophole. Keep physical posters wherever you have a physical workplace. Give remote employees the same notices digitally, and keep a record that they actually received them. Most states haven't spelled out remote enforcement, and the employers who get burned are the ones who treated that silence as a reason to do nothing.
How to Handle It in Practice
You can do this manually: download every applicable poster, email them to each remote employee, track who confirmed receipt in a spreadsheet, and repeat every time a poster changes. That works at five employees and falls apart at fifty. According to ePoster's change tracking, poster revisions happen all year across the states, which is why we monitor 1,400+ federal, state, and local posters in our database.
A platform like ePoster handles the whole loop. The integrable widget gives remote employees a digital corkboard on whatever internal site they already use. The email signing acknowledgment tool sends each employee their posters and captures confirmation. The master record of acknowledgment gives you the paper trail if anyone ever asks. The database holds every poster, updated when states revise them. Custom poster uploads cover your pre-filled and company-specific notices. And for your physical locations, the digital break room screen keeps the wall current too.
Get Labor Law Poster Updates in Your Inbox
Poster changes happen all year, and the remote rules keep evolving state by state. We send one email a month, only when something actually changes. Just what changed and whether it affects you.
FAQ
Can I just email the posters to my remote employees?
Emailing is a good delivery step, but on its own it usually isn't posting. Federal guidance expects employees to have ready access to the notices at all times, and a months-old email doesn't meet that. Give remote employees a place where the current posters always live, and keep a record that they saw them.
I have one remote employee in another state. Do I need that state's posters?
Yes. Posting requirements follow where the employee works, not where your company is based. One remote hire in a new state means that state's posters apply to that employee.
Where do I get the official posters?
Federal posters are free from the Department of Labor, and each state labor department publishes its own. You can also create a free ePoster account at edoceposter.com and get your state and federal posters in one place.
How do I prove my remote employees actually saw the posters?
Keep an acknowledgment record. Have each employee confirm receipt when posters are delivered or updated, and store those confirmations somewhere you can produce later. This is exactly what ePoster's email acknowledgment tool and master record were built for.
Poster rules for remote teams aren't hard once the pieces are laid out. Cover your walls, cover your remote employees digitally, keep proof, and check your state. If you want the change tracking handled for you, the monthly update email above is a free place to start.