Oregon New Hire Reporting: 20-Day Deadline, Submission, and Penalties

Oregon’s new hire reporting requirements obligate every employer to report each newly hired or rehired employee, and most newly engaged independent contractors, to the Oregon Child Support Program within 20 days of the person’s first day of work, under ORS 25.790.¹ The report has to carry specific identifying information about both the worker and the business, and it can be filed online, by fax, or by mail.

Who You Have to Report

Any individual, business, government body, or labor organization that pays someone for services in Oregon is covered. Part-time and temporary staff count. So do rehires.

Independent contractors are where many employers slip. A contractor must be reported if they file a federal W-9 and are expected to perform services for more than 20 days.¹ For traditional employees, the trigger is simpler: anyone required to file a federal W-4.

A rehire or reengagement counts as a new reportable event any time the worker has been gone for more than 60 consecutive days. That applies whether the person was laid off, separated, furloughed, placed on unpaid leave, or terminated, and it applies equally to contractors who stopped performing services and are later brought back.¹

The 20-Day Deadline

Reports are due within 20 calendar days of the employee’s first day of work or the date the independent contractor begins services. Employers who file electronically have another option: batch submissions on a twice-monthly cycle, with transmissions spaced no fewer than 12 days and no more than 16 days apart.¹ That cycle suits larger employers with steady hiring, since each transmission can cover every hire since the last one.

What the Report Must Include

At a minimum, every report has to contain:¹

The worker’s full legal name, current residential address, and Social Security number
The business name, address, and Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN)
The worker’s first date of work²

The Oregon New Hire Reporting Form itself asks for more: date of birth, phone numbers, and email address, plus whether the employer offers dependent or family health coverage (including coverage through a union) and whether there is a waiting period.³ Completing the health coverage section is worth the effort because it can keep the Child Support Program from sending unnecessary medical support notices to your payroll office.

How To Submit

Online

The state’s preferred method is the Oregon Employer Services Portal. Registration requires your FEIN. Once you’re set up, the portal handles new hire reports, terminations, income withholding order responses, company and employee updates, and child support payments.⁴ The portal also accepts bulk uploads in Excel (2007 or newer), CSV, and fixed-width text (ASCII), with a maximum file size of 1 MB per upload.⁵

Fax or Mail

Paper filers can complete the Oregon New Hire Reporting Form and fax it to 877-877-7415 or mail it to the Oregon Child Support Program Employer Services, PO Box 14680, Salem, OR 97309.⁶

W-4 or W-9 as a Substitute

In place of the state form, you can submit a copy of the worker’s completed W-4 (for employees) or W-9 (for contractors), provided it contains every required data point: both parties’ names, addresses, the worker’s Social Security number, and the employer’s FEIN.¹ The Division of Child Support may also approve equivalent forms, so if your payroll system generates its own onboarding document, check with Employer Services before using it.

Penalties for Not Reporting

Federal law lets each state impose civil penalties of up to $25 per unreported new hire, and up to $500 when the employer and worker conspire to withhold or falsify the report.⁷ Those are ceiling amounts; actual penalties in Oregon may fall below them.

Fixing Errors and Reaching Employer Services

If a submitted report contains incorrect information, the fastest fix is to log into the Employer Services Portal and update the record directly. For anything you cannot resolve there, Employer Services takes calls at 866-907-2857 and email at ChildSupportEmployerServices@doj.oregon.gov. Do not put a full Social Security number in the body of an email; the last four digits are enough for identification, and the state explicitly warns against sending the complete number by email.⁶

Multistate Employers

If you have workers in two or more states, the default rule is that you report new hires in every state where those workers are located. There is an alternative. A multistate employer that transmits reports electronically can designate a single state to receive all of its new hire reports nationwide, by notifying the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in writing through the Multistate Employer Registration Form or the OCSE online portal.⁷⁸

Employers using the single-state option must submit reports electronically to the designated state on the twice-monthly cycle of 12 to 16 days apart.⁷ The designated state then forwards the data to the National Directory of New Hires, which distributes it to whichever states need it. The electronic-only and twice-monthly requirements are not optional.

1
Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 25.790 – Hiring, Rehiring, Engaging or Reengaging Individual
2
Legal Information Institute. Oregon Administrative Code 137-055-4040 – New Hire Reporting Requirements
3
Oregon Department of Justice. Oregon New Hire Reporting Form
4
Oregon Child Support Program. Oregon Child Support Program – Employer Services Portal
5
Oregon Child Support Program. Record Layout Information for Reporting of New Hires via File Upload
6
Oregon Department of Justice. Report New Hires – Oregon Department of Justice – Child Support
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 653a – State Directory of New Hires
8
Office of Child Support Enforcement. Multistate Employer Registration Form for New Hire Reporting