Staffing agency license in Pennsylvania: what actually applies

Pennsylvania does not license private employment agencies, staffing firms, or nurses' registries at the state level. It used to: the Employment Agency Law of 1941 required a license from the Department of Labor and Industry for private employment agents, theatrical agencies and nurses' registries. The legislature repealed that law in full through Act 102 of 2014, effective roughly two months after the governor signed it that July. If your firm operates in Pennsylvania and someone tells you a state employment agency license is required, ask them to point to the current statute, because the one that used to require it is gone.

This page walks through what was repealed, why old advertising for Pennsylvania employment agency bonds is still floating around, and what actually still governs a recruiting or staffing desk operating in the state. It complements employment agency license requirements, which compares five other states where licensing still applies.

What the law used to require

The Employment Agency Law, Act of July 31, 1941, P.L. 616, No. 261, was titled an act "defining, regulating and providing for the licensing and registration of employment agents and their representatives, including private employment agents, theatrical employment agencies and nurses' registries." It gave the Department of Labor and Industry the power to license, suspend and revoke, and it carried penalties for operating without a license. Regulations implementing it sat in 34 Pa. Code, Chapter 9, which covered fee schedules, representatives, theatrical agencies and advertising rules for licensed agencies.

The 2014 repeal

Act 102 of 2014 (House Bill 1980) is titled, in the General Assembly's own official record, "EMPLOYMENT AGENCY LAW - REPEALED." Its text repeals every operative section of the 1941 act, from Section 1 through the sections defining licensing, fees, bonding and penalties. The repeal took effect 60 days after enactment. As of September 2026, Pennsylvania has not reinstated any state-level licensing scheme for general employment agencies, staffing firms, theatrical agencies or nurses' registries to replace it.

The regulations in 34 Pa. Code Chapter 9 were written to implement the now-repealed statute. A regulation that outlives its enabling statute is not self-executing, but the Department of Labor and Industry is the authority to confirm current enforcement status with if your firm wants a definitive answer in writing before treating the chapter as dead letter.

Why you still see "Pennsylvania employment agency bond" advertised

Search for licensing requirements in Pennsylvania and you will still find surety bond sellers advertising a $3,000 Pennsylvania employment agency bond, along with compliance-guide sites listing Pennsylvania among states that license the industry. Those pages describe the pre-2014 requirement and, as of September 2026, had not been updated to reflect the repeal. A surety bond has no purpose if the license it once supported no longer exists, so treat any vendor's marketing claim about Pennsylvania licensing as a claim to verify against the actual statute, not as confirmation on its own.

What still applies without a license

Repeal of the Employment Agency Law removed a specific licensing and bonding regime. It did not remove the general law that already governs how any Pennsylvania business operates:

• Business registration. Registering with the Department of State to do business in Pennsylvania, and any local registration your city or county requires, is unaffected by the repeal.
• Contract and consumer protection law. Fee agreements with clients and, if you charge candidates anything, with job seekers are still ordinary Pennsylvania contracts, subject to the state's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law where it applies, rather than to a placement-specific fee schedule.
• Wage payment law. A staffing firm that employs and pays its own temporary workers is subject to the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law regardless of whether it is licensed as an agency.
• Federal law. Title VII's definition of an employment agency, background check rules under the FCRA, and E-Verify obligations for federal contractors do not depend on state licensing status. See the FCRA background check process and E-Verify requirements by state.

Nurse and home care staffing is licensed on its own track

The repeal of the Employment Agency Law did not touch health care staffing, because that was never the same statute. Act 69 of 2006 amended the Health Care Facilities Act to require the Department of Health to license two categories relevant to staffing: home care agencies, which employ direct care workers, and home care registries, which refer direct care workers who work as independent contractors. Both are administered by the Department of Health's Division of Home Health under 28 Pa. Code Chapter 611, with a separate application, inspection and consumer-protection regime from anything in the old Employment Agency Law. A firm that places nurses, home health aides or other direct care workers into patients' homes in Pennsylvania should apply this licensing track rather than assume the 2014 repeal covers it; the repeal only reached the general employment agency statute, not health facility licensing.

City rules to check separately

Repeal was a state action. Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania cities can still require a general business privilege license or registration to operate any business within city limits, which is not specific to staffing or recruiting and does not require the same fee, bond or application that the old state employment agency license did. Check your city or county's own business licensing office rather than assuming that no state license means no local paperwork at all.

Fees you can charge candidates

With the specific licensing statute gone, Pennsylvania does not currently have a placement-specific cap or filed fee schedule governing what an agency may charge a job seeker, the way New York, Illinois or Washington do under their still-active laws. That does not mean anything goes: ordinary contract and consumer protection law still applies to any fee agreement with a candidate, and a firm that charges applicants should have the agreement reviewed on that basis, covered on the employer side in how to negotiate recruitment fees.

Why this trips up firms expanding from a neighboring state

A recruiting or staffing firm that already operates in New York, New Jersey or Ohio and expands into Pennsylvania often assumes the new state will ask for at least as much paperwork as the states it already knows, not less. Pennsylvania is the exception in this group: New York and New Jersey both still license general employment agencies with fees and bonds, and Ohio, like Pennsylvania, does not license the general category at the state level. Building a fifty-state compliance checklist around "get a license, post a bond" as the default step means Pennsylvania gets flagged as noncompliant when the correct answer is that there is nothing state-level to file. The opposite mistake is just as common: treating the 2014 repeal as covering every kind of placement business, when health care staffing under Act 69 was never part of what was repealed.

A checklist before you treat Pennsylvania as unlicensed

PENNSYLVANIA STATUS CHECK — [date] — owner: [name]

Confirm the repeal still stands:
  [ ] Checked Act 102 of 2014 text on palegis.us or legis.state.pa.us
  [ ] Called or emailed Department of Labor and Industry for current confirmation
  [ ] Dated the confirmation and filed it

Our model:
  [ ] Direct hire / retained search
  [ ] Contract or temp staffing, we employ the worker
  [ ] Nurse registry or theatrical placement
  [ ] Charge fees to candidates

Still to check separately:
  City or county business license          [ ]
  Business registration with Dept of State  [ ]
  Wage Payment and Collection Law if we employ workers directly  [ ]
  FCRA process if we order background checks  [ ]
  E-Verify status if we place into federal contracts  [ ]

Next review: [date, at least annually or after any statutory change]

Re-run this if Pennsylvania reintroduces any licensing bill; occupational licensing repeals of this kind are occasionally revisited, and the safest habit is to check the current statute rather than rely on what a vendor's page or an older article says it requires.

Keep a dated record of whatever the Department of Labor and Industry tells you, the same way you would keep a written exemption answer from a state that does license agencies. A "no license required" answer is still a compliance fact worth documenting, both for your own file and for any client that asks how your firm is authorized to operate in Pennsylvania. Clients accustomed to seeing a license number on a submittal from a New York or New Jersey desk sometimes ask for the Pennsylvania equivalent by habit; a short written explanation, with the Act 102 citation, answers that question faster than re-explaining the repeal each time it comes up.