How do new hire reporting obligations fit into the hiring process?

Employers are required to furnish information every new employee to a state directory of new hires. The information is intended to be used primarily to increase the collection of child support. Employers play a role in locating parents who are delinquent in child support payments through these new hire reporting requirements.

State new hire reporting requirements. States track and collect payments from delinquent parents in order to reduce a nationwide shortfall of uncollected child support payments.

Once the state agency receives new hire information from an employer, it will match that information against a case registry of child support orders issued in the state. It will also forward the new hire information to the National Directory of New Hires (maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services), where a similar matching process will take place with a federal case registry of child support orders.

Information required from employers. Under federal law, all states must require employers to submit the following information with respect to each new hire: the newly hired employee's name, address and social security number, and the employer's name, address and federal EIN number. These are sometimes referred to as the federal data elements required for new hire reporting.

In addition, individual states may require employers to report additional information. Additional data elements required by some states include the new hire's date of hire and date of birth.

More information on state new hiring reporting requirements can be found at ¶36,230 , What are new hire reporting requirements? and in State Laws for each state.