Hi. Under Rhode Island Law, Can I request my payroll records-my punch times and copies of my paychecks?

I don't know about your time records.

But why didn't you keep your pay stubs when you first got them? You can ask, but the employer doesn't have to give. Or if they want to, they can charge you. My last employer charged $5 for any pay stub that the employee had signed for (or was mailed) for checks over one month old.

There is another potential problem and that is for every payroll system I have ever used (over 30 years that is quite a few), paychecks and pay stubs were a one part form given to the employee. I have never had backup copies of the pay stub to give. We could run payroll reports with the same information, but it would not be an actual pay stub. I have had employees try to insist that we were legally required to manually retype pay stubs for them (no we were not, and no we did not). Most payments are made via direct deposit these days, and it is increasing common for the payer to not actually get the check back from the bank.

So on the one hand you have whatever state law RI has on this issue (if any) and on the other hand you have a request which your employer may legitimately regard as a huge amount of work for them to comply with. If there is no legal requirement on the employer to do this (RI is not my state, so I have no idea on this), and it could be a huge amount of work to comply with your request, then the chances your employer will comply is not good. Assuming your employer is reasonable in the first place - they might not be.

Thank you!

There is another potential problem and that is for every payroll system I have ever used (over 30 years that is quite a few), paychecks and pay stubs were a one part form given to the employee. I have never had backup copies of the pay stub to give.

The company I worked for from 1984 to 1993 had them on, um, microfiche. :D