Wisconsin Labor Law Posters: State & Federal Requirements

Every Wisconsin employer has to display a specific set of state and federal workplace posters where employees can see them, and the exact list depends on how many people you employ, what industry you’re in, and whether you hold any federal contracts. Wisconsin labor law posters fall into three buckets: a baseline that applies to everyone, a second tier that kicks in at 50 employees, and a handful of industry-specific notices. Federal law layers its own requirements on top. All of them are free from government sources.

Baseline State Posters for Every Wisconsin Employer

Three Wisconsin posters apply regardless of your headcount or industry.

The Fair Employment Law poster, which covers Wisconsin’s workplace discrimination protections. Every employer in the state must display it.¹
The Unemployment Insurance notice (UCB-7-P), required of all employers covered by Wisconsin’s unemployment insurance law. It explains how workers apply for benefits.²
The Wage Payment and Collection Law notice, required under Wis. Stat. § 109.07, explaining when and how employees must be paid. Skipping it carries a forfeiture of up to $100.³

Additional State Posters at 50 Employees

Hit 50 employees on payroll and four more Wisconsin posters become mandatory.

The Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Law poster, covering unpaid leave for serious health conditions, childbirth, and family care under Wis. Stat. § 103.10.
The Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Leave notice.
The Cessation of Health Care Benefits notice, explaining the rules around employer termination of health insurance coverage.
The Business Closing/Mass Layoff Notification, explaining worker protections during facility closures or large layoffs. Employees working fewer than 20 hours per week or with less than six months of tenure may be excluded from the 50-employee count.²

If you employ between 25 and 50 workers, you don’t display the state FMLA or donation leave posters, but you do have to post your own written family and medical leave policy and your own donation leave policy.²

Industry- and Practice-Specific State Posters

A few additional Wisconsin notices apply only in narrower situations:

Hours and Days of Work for Minors, required for any employer who hires workers under 18, except agricultural and domestic service employers.
Honesty Testing Devices, required only if you use lie detector or honesty testing.
Retaliation Protection for Health Care Workers, required of all health care providers and anyone who owns or manages a health care facility.
Special Minimum Wage for Workers With Disabilities, required only if you hold a special minimum wage license from DWD.²

The Minimum Wage Poster Is Not Required

DWD lists a Wisconsin Minimum Wage Rates poster, but it explicitly states there is no requirement to post it. The notice is informational only. Wisconsin’s minimum wage has stayed at $7.25 per hour since 2009, matching the federal rate, so the federal FLSA poster already covers this ground for most workplaces.²

Required Federal Posters

On top of the state notices, most Wisconsin workplaces need the following federal posters:

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Minimum Wage poster, explaining federal pay standards and overtime rules. Every employer subject to FLSA minimum wage provisions must display it.⁴
Know Your Rights (EEOC), the current federal anti-discrimination poster that replaced the older “EEO is the Law” notice. It covers race, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, religion, age, disability, and genetic information. The penalty for not posting is $680, adjusted annually for inflation.⁵
OSHA Job Safety and Health, telling employees they have the right to a workplace free from recognized hazards and how to file complaints. Reproductions must be at least 8½ by 14 inches in 10-point type.⁶
Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA), which virtually all private employers must display. Federal, state, and local government employers are exempt, and certain security service firms and national defense employers have limited exemptions.⁷
USERRA, covering reemployment rights after military service. USERRA is unusual in that it allows flexibility in delivery: you can post it on a bulletin board, hand it out, mail it, or send it by email.⁸

The federal FMLA poster applies to private employers with 50 or more employees during at least 20 workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year, and to public agencies and local education agencies regardless of size. A willful failure to post carries a civil penalty of $216.⁹ If you hit the 50-employee threshold in Wisconsin, you likely need both the state and federal family leave posters, since the two laws are separate and cover somewhat different ground.

Not every federal poster applies to every business. DOL notes that posting requirements vary by statute, so a small employer below the FMLA threshold would not need the federal FMLA notice.¹⁰

Extra Posters for Federal Contractors

If you hold a federal government contract or subcontract, Executive Order 13496 requires you to post a notice informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, including the right to organize and bargain collectively. The poster must measure 11 by 17 inches.⁶

Employers performing federally funded construction work also need the Davis-Bacon Act poster displayed at the job site in a prominent and accessible location, along with any applicable wage determination for the project.¹¹

Where to Download the Posters for Free

Every required poster is available at no cost from official government sources. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development offers downloads of all state posters on its workplace posters page, and runs an eWorkBoard, a digital repository where employees can access the same notices online.¹²

Federal posters are on the U.S. Department of Labor’s poster page and on individual agency sites such as OSHA and the EEOC. DWD also links to many federal posters directly from its own page.²

If a significant portion of your workforce speaks a language other than English, provide posters in those languages where available. DWD offers many posters in Spanish and Hmong, and the EEOC’s Know Your Rights poster comes in multiple languages.⁵

Ignore the Poster Scams

Private companies regularly send official-looking mailings and emails warning employers they face thousands in fines unless they immediately buy updated poster sets. These are almost always scams or aggressive upsells. Common tactics include fake “urgent compliance” notices stuffed with legal jargon, mailings designed to look like they come from a corporate office or government agency, and in-person visits from someone claiming to be a state “auditor” who happens to have posters for sale. Verify anything suspicious through the DWD or DOL websites. Every required poster is free, and no legitimate government agency sells poster packages through unsolicited outreach.

Where and How to Display Them

Posters go in a conspicuous place where employees naturally gather and where notices are customarily displayed. Break rooms, areas near time clocks, and common hallways are the usual choices. The test is whether employees can actually see and read them during a normal workday. A notice tucked behind a filing cabinet or buried under other memos doesn’t count.

Federal law doesn’t set a specific posting height, but notices must be “easily readable.” The EEOC adds that posters must be placed where applicants and employees with mobility-limiting disabilities can reach them, and must be available in accessible formats for people with vision-limiting disabilities.⁵

A few posters carry specific size rules when printed. OSHA’s poster must be at least 8½ by 14 inches in 10-point type. The EPPA and Davis-Bacon posters each need to be printed on two pages and assembled into an 11-by-17-inch format.⁶

If you operate multiple work locations in Wisconsin, each site needs its own complete set. Audit the posting areas periodically to make sure nothing has been taken down, covered up, or faded past legibility.

Electronic Posting for Remote Employees

DOL Field Assistance Bulletin 2020-7 lays out when electronic posting can substitute for a physical display. Electronic-only posting is acceptable only when all three of these conditions are met:

Your entire workforce is remote, with no one reporting to a physical worksite.
All employees customarily receive information from the employer by electronic means.
All employees have readily available access to the electronic posting at all times, without needing to request special permission to view it.¹³

If even one employee works on-site, you still need physical posters at that location. Electronic notices can supplement physical posting for remote staff, but they can’t replace it. Burying a poster file on an obscure intranet page nobody knows about is treated the same as hiding a physical poster in a closet. You have to actively tell employees where to find the notices and make the location intuitive.¹³

Penalties for Missing Posters

Fines vary widely by poster, and some are steeper than most employers expect.

OSHA Job Safety and Health: failing to post is classified alongside other-than-serious violations at up to $16,550 per violation.¹⁴
EEOC Know Your Rights: $680, adjusted annually for inflation.⁵
Federal FMLA: $216 for a willful violation.⁹
Wisconsin Wage Payment and Collection: forfeiture of up to $100 under state statute.³

The OSHA figure is the one that tends to get employers’ attention. Even the smaller fines add up quickly when an auditor flags multiple missing notices at once, and the fix is one of the cheapest in all of employment law: a few free documents taped to a wall where your employees already look.

1
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. Wisconsin Fair Employment Law
2
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. Wisconsin Workplace Posters
3
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 109 – Section 109.07
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fair Labor Standards Act Minimum Wage Poster
5
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Posters – Frequently Asked Questions
7
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 801 – Application of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Your Rights Under USERRA Poster
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Workplace Posters
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Davis-Bacon Poster (Government Construction)
12
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. eWorkBoard – Wisconsin Workplace Posters
13
United States Department of Labor. Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2020-7
14
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA Penalties