Employee Personnel File Access Requirements in Wisconsin

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Who may ask and what is covered

Wis. Stat. § 103.13(1) expressly includes former employees in the word “employee.” The right reaches personnel documents the employer used to decide employment qualifications, promotion, transfer, additional compensation, termination, or other discipline. The employee may ask for all or only part of those records.

A representative has a narrower route. When the employee has a current grievance, the employee may designate a union, bargaining-unit, or other representative in writing to inspect records that may bear on resolving that grievance (§ 103.13(3)).

Request, deadline, and inspection place

The employer may require the request to be written. It must offer inspection within 7 working days and must grant at least two requests in a calendar year, unless a collective bargaining agreement provides otherwise (§ 103.13(2)).

Inspection ordinarily occurs during normal working hours at a location reasonably near the employee’s place of employment. If that would require the employee to take time off, the employer may offer another reasonable time. It may also allow a different time or place when that is more convenient for the employee.

Copies and cost

Inspection includes the right to copy the records or receive a copy. Under § 103.13(7), any charge must be reasonable and cannot exceed the employer’s actual reproduction cost. The section does not state a separate mailing right or postage rule.

Correction and rebuttal

The employee and employer may agree to remove or correct disputed information. If they do not agree, § 103.13(4) lets the employee submit a written statement explaining the employee’s position. The employer must attach it to the disputed part of the record, and the statement must accompany that material whenever it is later released to a third party while still in the file.

Exclusions and enforcement

Section 103.13(6) excludes records concerning a possible employee criminal offense, test contents other than cumulative scores, staff-management planning, private information about someone else, and records relevant to another pending claim that may be obtained in court discovery. The statute also has a separate medical-record procedure, but medical files are outside this survey.

An employer that violates § 103.13 may be fined $10 to $100 for each violation, and every day of refusal or failure is a separate violation. Subsection (7m) also routes discharge and other discriminatory acts connected to exercising the right through Wis. Stat. § 111.322(2m).

What trips people up

The seven-day period is measured in working days, not calendar days. The statute does not convert the deadline to a longer period merely because the request comes from a former employee.

The file is defined by use, not by where the employer stores it. A document used for a promotion, compensation, discipline, or termination decision can be covered even if it is kept outside a folder labeled “personnel file.” Conversely, the express exclusions remain outside the right even if HR stores them in that folder.

The correction right does not let either side unilaterally rewrite the record. Correction or removal requires agreement; the guaranteed fallback is the employee’s attached written statement.

Common questions

Does the right end when I leave the job?

No. Section 103.13(1) expressly defines “employee” to include a former employee and states no post-termination request cutoff.

Can the employer limit me to one request each year?

Not under the statutory floor. It must grant at least two requests per calendar year unless a collective bargaining agreement provides otherwise.

Can I see a test used in an employment decision?

You may see a cumulative score for a section or the whole test, but subsection (6)(c) excludes the test document itself from inspection.

Statutes and sources

• Wis. Stat. § 103.13(1)-(3): former employees, covered records, two annual requests, 7-working-day deadline, inspection place, and grievance representatives — official text (accessed July 12, 2026).
• Wis. Stat. § 103.13(4), (6): correction, written rebuttal, and excluded records — official text (accessed July 12, 2026).
• Wis. Stat. § 103.13(7)-(8): copy cost, retaliation cross-reference, and daily fine — official text (accessed July 12, 2026).