Profiles · Companies and entities
- Type
- Company or group
- Role
- Other company
- Programs
- ERC
- Updated
The profile
A professional employer organization that filed Employee Retention Credit claims for its small-business customers as an IRS-certified PEO, charged nothing for it, and by March 2025 said it had facilitated more than $300 million in credits while $90 million more sat in the IRS backlog.
Identity and role
Justworks is a professional employer organization (PEO) for small businesses: it co-employs customers' workers and runs their payroll and benefits. Its March 2025 post on the Employee Retention Credit was written by Michael Seckler, whose author note says he joined Justworks' board in 2015, became chief operating officer in 2019 and president and chief executive in 2022. Justworks describes itself as an IRS-certified PEO (CPEO).
Pandemic-relief role
"Since the launch of the ERTC program, Justworks has helped facilitate over $300 million in credits for our customers," Seckler wrote. "Unlike some providers who charged upfront filing fees or took a percentage of claims, we never charged our customers for access to ERTC."
CPEOs filed their customers' Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims on aggregate returns, which put the customers' refunds behind the IRS's review of the whole filing. In the fall of 2024, Justworks says, it "brought seven customers to Capitol Hill" to press for clearing "low-risk ERTC claims—such as those filed by IRS-certified CPEOs like Justworks." Working "with the IRS, Congressman Goldman (NY-10), Senator Gillibrand, and Senator Schumer," it said in March 2025, "we've successfully secured the release of an additional $50 million" in ERC funds, which it was passing to customers. It also committed to pass along "any interest paid by the IRS on delayed claims."
It said more than $90 million for its customers was still in the backlog, "averaging $159,000 per customer," at companies that "employ just 12 people on average." Divided out, that is roughly 570 customers still waiting; the post does not give the count.
Legal status / controversies
No enforcement action against Justworks over the ERC appears in the records we reviewed.
Where they are now (2025–2026)
The March 2025 post is the last public statement on the ERC from Justworks we found.