Part 516 (the FLSA payroll recordkeeping regulation, 29 CFR Part 516) does not set one retention period for every wage-and-hour record. It sets two: records falling under § 516.5 must be preserved for at least three years, while records falling under § 516.6 need only be kept two years. The clearest version of that split is the pairing between § 516.5(a)’s payroll records and § 516.6(a)’s supplementary basic records — a payroll summary kept three years, with the daily time cards and wage rate tables behind it kept two. The same pairing recurs in § 516.6(c)’s records of additions to or deductions from wages, which likewise back up figures the payroll record reports. The rest of each bucket belongs there because § 516.5 or § 516.6 names it specifically, not because it independently fits a summary-and-backup pairing. § 516.5(b)’s certificates, agreements, and plans are written instruments that explain why pay was computed as it was, rather than a record of what was paid. § 516.5(c)’s sales and purchase records are a business-volume total unconnected to any employee’s pay. And § 516.6(b)’s order, shipping, and billing records are ordinary business records, not the backup for how an individual’s pay was computed. Within the three-year bucket, the start date itself varies by record type. Payroll records under § 516.5(a) run from the last date of entry (the date information was most recently added to the record). Certificates, agreements, and plans under § 516.5(b) run from their last effective date — the date the document most recently took effect, not necessarily the date it was signed or entered into. Unlike payroll records and agreements, which run from a last-date-of-entry or last-effective-date trigger, sales and purchase records under § 516.5(c) have no specific triggering date. They are simply preserved for the same at least three years as the rest of § 516.5, with the regulation instead describing how the sales and purchase totals themselves are recorded: during such periods (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.), in such form as the employer maintains records in the ordinary course of business. An employer who treats every record the same way — destroying everything after two years, or hoarding everything for three — either destroys records the Act still requires or spends storage on records it no longer must keep. The first mistake is the one that creates liability.

The three-year bucket’s clearest example of a payroll summary is § 516.5(a)’s payroll records — the payroll or other records containing the employee information and data called for elsewhere in Part 516. The rest of § 516.5 does not follow that same summary logic; it simply names two further record types that must be kept three years. § 516.5(b) covers the written instruments explaining why pay was computed as it was — five categories in all. First, collective bargaining agreements relied on to exclude certain costs — that is, allow deductions from wages for board, lodging, or other facilities — under section 3(m) of the Act, per § 516.27. Second, agreements under section 7(b) and their amendments: section 7(b) agreements are collective bargaining agreements granting a partial overtime exemption tied to an extended work period, no more than 1,040 hours in 26 consecutive weeks under 7(b)(1), or 2,240 hours with guaranteed employment in 52 consecutive weeks under 7(b)(2), per § 516.20. Third, plans, trusts, employment contracts, and collective bargaining agreements under section 7(e) of the Act: section 7(e) governs which payments are excluded from an employee’s regular rate when computing overtime, per § 516.2(a)(6)(iii). Fourth, individual contracts or collective bargaining agreements under section 7(f) of the Act: section 7(f) Belo contracts guarantee an employee fixed weekly earnings where the duties necessitate irregular hours of work, per § 778.402 — § 516.24 is what must be kept for one, and Chapter 9 teaches these guaranty contracts in full — or, where such a contract or agreement is not in writing, a written memorandum summarizing its terms, per § 516.5(b)(4). Fifth, written agreements or memoranda summarizing the terms of oral agreements or understandings under section 7(g) or 7(j) of the Act: section 7(g) lets overtime be computed using multiple applicable hourly or piece rates, per § 516.25; section 7(j) lets hospitals and residential care institutions compute overtime on a 14-consecutive-day work period instead of the standard 7-day workweek, per § 516.23. § 516.5(b) also covers any certificates or notices named elsewhere in Part 516. § 516.5(c) adds a business-level record to the same three-year bucket: the employer’s total dollar volume of sales or business and total volume of goods purchased or received, kept in whatever form the employer already uses in the ordinary course of business.

The two-year bucket’s clearest expression of that backup relationship is § 516.6(a) and § 516.6(c) — the material an investigator would ask for to check how a payroll figure was actually computed. § 516.6(a) covers the basic time and earning cards or sheets showing an employee’s daily starting and stopping time, or the amount of work accomplished when that amount determines pay, along with the wage rate tables or schedules used to compute straight-time earnings (pay at regular, non-overtime rates) and overtime pay. The same two-trigger pattern taught above for § 516.5 applies here too: the basic time and earning cards or sheets run from the date of last entry (§ 516.6(a)(1)), while the wage rate tables or schedules run from their last effective date (§ 516.6(a)(2)). § 516.6(b) covers order, shipping, and billing records — the originals or true copies of customer orders and invoices, incoming and outgoing shipping or delivery records, as well as all bills of lading (shipping documents) and all billings to customers which the employer retains or makes in the usual course of business operations. It belongs in the same two-year bucket because § 516.6 places it there, not because it backs up an individual employee’s pay, and it runs from the last date of entry (§ 516.6(b)). The regulation excludes individual sales slips, cash register tapes, or the like from this category. § 516.6(c) covers the records behind additions to or deductions from wages in two parts. § 516.6(c)(1) requires the individual-employee records of the dates, amounts, and nature of the items making up each addition or deduction, referenced in § 516.2(a)(10), and § 516.6(c)(2) requires the records behind the original cost, operating and maintenance cost, and depreciation and interest charges when such costs and charges are involved in the addition or deduction. Unlike § 516.6(a)’s last-date-of-entry and last-effective-date triggers or § 516.6(b)’s last-date-of-entry trigger, § 516.6(c) specifies no particular date that starts this two-year clock — it requires only that these records be preserved for at least two years.