Ohio Overtime Laws - Unpaid Overtime and Wages
*For the new 2023 updates on the Ohio Overtime Laws, visit our overtime blog post.*
What are the Ohio Overtime Laws and how should you be paid as an employee for overtime work? The overtime laws can be complex but they do not need to be. We have substantial experience in handling Ohio overtime claims ranging from single individual claims to class actions of more than 23,000 individuals. Here, our overtime attorneys provide you an overview of the overtime laws in Ohio and some of the common occurrences where employers fail to properly pay employees overtime, as required by Ohio and federal laws.
The overtime violation cases we see most often involve:
Misclassification as exempt from overtime
“Off-the-clock” work
Paying employees overtime only if they work more than 80 hours in a two week period – overtime must be paid for all hours worked over 40 in a single workweek
Automatic deductions of meals breaks or lunch breaks even though an employee did not have the opportunity to take a full, uninterrupted meal period
Failure to pay employees for short breaks of less than 20 minutes, regardless of how many breaks are taken during a shift
Time clock rounding steals time
Improper overtime calculation methods, including paying employees at a lower rate or a combined rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek
On-Call time
Failure to pay training time
Failure to pay travel time
Failure to pay on call time
Minimum wage violations
Failing to include non-discretionary bonuses, shift differentials, or commissions in your regular rate of payFailure to provide meal and rest breaks
Vacation forfeitures
Improper wage deductions / “charge backs”
Failure to reimbursements for expenses / uniforms
Improper classification as independent contractor
More on the Ohio overtime laws:
An employer who requires or permits an employee to work overtime is generally required to pay the employee premium pay for such overtime work.
Unless specifically exempted, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay. Exemptions from overtime can include executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and some computer roles. In addition, there is no limit on the number of hours employees aged 16 and older may work in any workweek.
An employee’s workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week, but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. Different workweeks may be established for different employees or groups of employees. Averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular pay day for the pay period in which the wages were earned.
The regular rate of pay cannot be less than the minimum wage. The regular rate includes all remuneration for employment except certain payments excluded. Payments which are not part of the regular rate include pay for expenses incurred on the employer’s behalf, premium payments for overtime work or the true premiums paid for work on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, discretionary bonuses, gifts and payments in the nature of gifts on special occasions, and payments for occasional periods when no work is performed due to vacation, holidays, or illness.
For more information on Ohio Overtime Laws, contact Mansell Law Ohio’s unpaid overtime employment lawyer, visit the Frequently Asked Questions page, or check out our Ohio employment law blog for specific overtime violations.
Mansell Law is widely recognized as a top employment law firm in Ohio. The attorneys at Mansell Law have handled hundreds of claims for unpaid wages and overtime for violations of Ohio’s overtime laws. If you are unsure about how you are being paid, it is worth giving us a call for a free consultation.