Three layers of law. One payroll.
Greater Philadelphia crosses three states. Federal, state, and city rules all want something different from you, and which ones apply changes with the bridge you cross. We sort out who is asking and what they want.
PEO vs ASO vs HRO in plain English: who is the employer of record, who holds the tax ID, what each actually does day to day, and which fits a growing company.
Read the guide →Philadelphia employer requirements by headcount: which city ordinances apply from your first hire, which start at 10 and 50 employees, and what to post.
Read the guide →Pennsylvania Act 32 for employers in plain English: how to find PSD codes, the higher-of rule for local earned income tax, when to remit, and what to recheck.
Read the guide →What applies to you?
Greater Philadelphia crosses three states, and the rules change with the state line as much as with your headcount. Pick where your people work and how many there are.
Where your people work
Employees
Thresholds come from the EEOC, the U.S. Department of Labor, the IRS, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Pennsylvania L&I, the Philadelphia Code, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and the Delaware Department of Labor. Every row links to the piece that cites its source, or to the official source where we have not written that piece yet. Verified October 19, 2026.
Six things people ask us about
Pick a subject
Should You Outsource?
Hire, outsource, or both. How to tell which one your company needs, and when.
PEO vs ASO vs HRO
What the three models actually do, which one keeps you the employer, and why most growing companies start with HRO.
Payroll and Tax
Act 32 and PSD codes, the Philadelphia wage tax, and withholding when your people cross a state line.
Philadelphia Rules
The City stacks the most on top of any employer in the region. Every ordinance, sorted by the headcount that triggers it.
Your First Hires
Registering as an employer in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Delaware, and the headcount lines that change your obligations.
New Jersey and Delaware
What changes the moment someone on your payroll lives or works across the river.
Compliance is the floor. It is not the reason to get HR right.
You pay for HR either way
When nobody owns it, the work does not disappear. It moves into your inbox at nine at night, into a manager guessing at a leave request, into a hire that took four months. The only question is whether you pay on purpose.
The first 90 days set the next three years
Onboarding is the cheapest retention work a company does, and the first thing skipped when no one owns it. People decide early whether a place is run well, and they rarely tell you before they go.
Records are the whole defense
Philadelphia's POWER Act presumes a violation when an employer cannot produce records. That turns paperwork into the difference between a conversation and a finding.
Everything we have published
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