Here's the honest starting point: there is no official rule for how long you should keep your own offer letters, performance reviews or separation papers. Employers have retention rules for their files. Individuals don't, which is why these papers tend to end up scattered, or stuck on a work laptop that goes back on your last day.
What official sources do cover, in the US, generally: retirement and pension plan records (the FTC says keep them forever), your own record of pay (the Department of Labor says keep one), and the earnings evidence Social Security asks for. Everything else below is common practice, labelled as such.
What to keep and for how long
| Record | Keep for | Why / source |
|---|---|---|
| Retirement and pension plan documents, including the Summary Plan Description | Forever | FTC (2025): "keep forever" |
| Military records | Forever | FTC (2025): "keep forever" |
| Pay stubs and records of hours | About a year, longer while any pay question is open | FTC (2025): pay stubs "keep for a year"; Department of Labor: keep your own record |
| W-2s | Until you start receiving Social Security | IRS instructions on Form W-2 |
| Health coverage records | With that year's tax records | IRS Topic no. 305 |
| Offer letter and employment agreement | No official rule; common practice is while you work there, plus a few years | Records agreed pay, start date and terms |
| Performance reviews, raise and promotion letters | No official rule; common practice is while employed, plus a while after | Useful in pay talks, references and disputes |
| Benefit elections and enrollment confirmations | No official rule; common practice is until the plan year ends and any claims are settled | Shows what you chose if a deduction or coverage is wrong |
| Separation, severance or layoff papers | No official rule; common practice is to keep them long term | Sets out final pay and any terms you agreed to |
Retirement and pension records: the forever pile
These are the work papers with the longest life, and the FTC's current advice (June 2025) puts "retirement and pension plans" in its keep forever group, next to wills and powers of attorney. A plan you joined at 26 can pay out at 67, long after the employer has changed names twice.
The key document is the Summary Plan Description (SPD). For retirement plans covered by federal law, the Department of Labor says the plan administrator "is legally obligated to provide to participants, free of charge, the SPD." It explains when you can join, how service and benefits are calculated, when benefits vest, when and how they're paid, and how to file a claim. Keep the SPD for every plan you've belonged to, along with your statements, and especially anything showing a vested balance at an old employer.
Military service records belong in the same pile: the FTC lists "military records" under keep forever too.
Pay, hours and your earnings record
Your pay records do two jobs. In the short term, they settle questions about whether you were paid correctly. The Department of Labor's advice, if there's no record of your hours or pay, is to keep your own: "Write down every time you get paid, with the date and how much pay you received." Pay stubs are that record already, and how long to keep pay stubs covers which ones to hold longer.
In the long term, your W-2s back up your Social Security earnings record, which Social Security can ordinarily only correct up to 3 years, 3 months and 15 days after the year you were paid. That's why the IRS instructions on the W-2 say to keep it until you start receiving benefits.
Offer letters, reviews and exit papers
None of these has an official retention period, so this is practice, not a rule:
- Offer letter and any employment agreement. Keep them while you work there and for a few years after you leave. They're the written version of what you were promised: salary, start date, bonus terms, notice periods.
- Performance reviews, raise letters, promotion letters. Keep your own copies while you're employed and for a while after. They help in a salary negotiation, a reference check, or a disagreement about why a job ended.
- Separation, severance or layoff papers. Keep these long term. If you signed an agreement, it sets out terms you may need to show years later.
If any of these documents is tied to a legal claim, ask an employment lawyer how long to keep it; this page isn't legal advice.
Benefit elections and health coverage
Each open enrollment produces a confirmation of what you chose. There's no official period for keeping them, but a common practice is to hold each one until that plan year is over and any claims are settled. If a payroll deduction or a denied claim doesn't match what you signed up for, the confirmation is your proof.
For taxes, IRS Topic 305 adds that you "should keep records of your own and your family members' health care insurance coverage." Those go with that year's tax records.
Where to keep them
The most important step is the one people skip: save your own copies before you leave a job. Offer letters, reviews and benefit confirmations often live in an HR portal or a work inbox, and access usually ends the day you do. Stick to records that are about you; company material stays with the company.
At home, a single "Work" folder with one subfolder per employer is plenty. On an iPhone, use the Files app: open Files, tap the More button, choose Scan Documents for paper, or save PDFs straight from email, then tap Save and pick the folder. An important documents organizer shows where this folder fits among your other life paperwork, and the master retention chart covers everything else.
If you'd rather not maintain folders, Paperlock reads each document you save, including the employer, the date and the amounts, and answers questions like "what was my starting salary at my last job?" with the offer letter attached. Either way, the goal is the same: when the question comes up in ten years, the answer is a search away, not lost on a laptop you returned.