Q&A with The Workplace Advisors – January 2026

With remote work now a permanent part of many organizations’ hiring strategies, employers are often left wondering how far their existing policies can stretch across state lines. Questions around compliance, payroll registration, and benefit requirements frequently come up when onboarding remote employees in new states.

In this January Q&A, The Workplace Advisors explain what employers should know when hiring an out-of-state remote employee and how to ensure policies and practices align with applicable state and federal requirements.

Question: We are getting ready to hire an employee who will be working remotely from a different state than our office. Since they will be reporting to a manager based in the main office, are we okay in applying our current policies to them or is there something else we need to do?

Answer: Most employment laws are based on where the employee is based and physically doing the work regardless of where the main office is located. This means that, unless your current policies are more generous, you will need to follow the laws for the state they are in. For example, if their state requires you provide paid sick time but you currently have a PTO policy which meets or exceeds those required parameters (amount, accrual rate, reasons for use, carryover, payout at separation, etc.) then you do not need to change your policy. If not, you will need to make amendments to that policy at least for that remote employee.

With very few exceptions, you will need to register in that state for payroll tax collection and unemployment purposes. You will also need to ensure you have Workers' Comp coverage for that state.

One thing that does not change is FMLA. However, that employee must be counted into the number of employees working in or reporting to that office. If there are 49 or more employees in the main office, then the employee may be covered under FMLA as employee number 50 even if they are outside a 75-mile radius.