Ohio builds its wage floor into the state constitution — a voter-enacted amendment that sets a minimum wage above the federal figure and indexes it to inflation every year — and then fills in the rest of the wage-and-hour rules by statute. Overtime is a weekly-only, federal-style rule; there is no adult meal-or-rest-break mandate; final pay follows the ordinary payday cycle rather than a separation-specific deadline; and wages must be paid on a semimonthly schedule by default, with an itemized pay stub. Worker status is decided not by a state ABC test but by the federal economic-realities test that Ohio law borrows wholesale from the Fair Labor Standards Act. This note walks through each rule an in-house team has to get right for an Ohio workforce. For the cross-state framework, see the wage and hour practice guide.
What is the minimum wage?
Ohio's minimum wage lives in the state constitution, not in an ordinary statute. Article II, section 34a sets the wage and directs that it rise every year, so the implementing statute simply commands every employer to pay at least the constitutional rate . The wage is recalculated each September 30 by the change in the consumer price index and takes effect the following January 1, rounded to the nearest five cents — which puts the 2026 non-tipped rate at $11.00 an hour, well above the federal floor of $7.25 . Two categories stay at the federal figure: employees under sixteen, and small employers, whom the Department of Commerce identifies in 2026 as those grossing less than $405,000. No Ohio city or county may set a different local minimum wage, because the implementing statute forbids it .
Because the floor is constitutional, the annual step-ups happen automatically and no ordinary statute can lower them. Section 34a fixes the indexing formula and the September-to-January cadence.
The amendment carves out only two groups from its higher rate — the youngest workers and the smallest businesses — and drops them to the federal minimum.
Local governments cannot layer their own minimum wage on top: the wage-payment statute expressly bars a political subdivision from setting a different figure.
Two bills introduced in the 136th General Assembly remain pending in committee: House Bill 34 would increase the minimum wage, and House Bill 225 would phase out the subminimum wage for individuals with disabilities. Neither has been enacted, so the constitutional rate continues to govern.
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A.1 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.02Section 4111.02 implements the constitutional minimum wage by commanding every employer to pay each employee at least the rate specified in Article II, section 34a, which the director of commerce adjusts annually.
Every employer, as defined in Section 34a of Article II, Ohio Constitution, shall pay each of the employer's employees at a wage rate of not less than the wage rate specified in Section 34a of Article II, Ohio Constitution.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.02.
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A.2 Ohio Const. art. II, § 34aArticle II, section 34a indexes the Ohio minimum wage to inflation, directing an annual September 30 recalculation by the CPI for urban wage earners and clerical workers, effective the following January 1 and rounded to the nearest five cents.
On the thirtieth day of each September, beginning in 2007, this state minimum wage rate shall be increased effective the first day of the following January by the rate of inflation for the twelve month period prior to that September according to the consumer price index or its successor index for all urban wage earners and clerical workers for all items as calculated by the federal government rounded to the nearest five cents.
See Ohio Const. art. II, § 34a.
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A.3 Ohio Const. art. II, § 34aArticle II, section 34a drops two groups to the federal minimum wage — employees under sixteen and employees of small businesses — while the gross-receipts threshold is itself indexed to inflation each year.
Employees under the age of sixteen and employees of businesses with annual gross receipts of two hundred fifty thousand dollars or less for the preceding calendar year shall be paid a wage rate of not less than that established under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act or its successor law.
See Ohio Const. art. II, § 34a.
Official source · Agency guidance
A.4 Ohio Department of Commerce, 2026 Minimum WagePDFThe Department of Commerce's 2026 minimum-wage poster identifies the indexed small-employer threshold as $405,000 in gross receipts, below which employers pay the current federal minimum wage.
“Employers” who gross less than $405,000 shall pay their employees no less than the current federal minimum wage rate.
See Ohio Department of Commerce, 2026 Minimum Wage.
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A.5 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.02Section 4111.02 preempts local wage ordinances by barring any political subdivision from establishing a minimum wage rate different from the state figure, so there is no higher local minimum wage in Ohio.
No political subdivision shall establish a minimum wage rate different from the wage rate required under this section.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.02.
When is overtime owed?
Ohio overtime is weekly-only, and it tracks the federal rule. Section 4111.03 requires one-and-one-half times the regular rate for hours worked over forty in a workweek and expressly incorporates the FLSA's own exemptions, so there is no daily-overtime or double-time tier . The Department of Commerce states the same rule and adds the coverage line that matters most: the overtime obligation reaches only employers grossing $150,000 or more per year . Note that this $150,000 overtime threshold is a different number from the $405,000 small-employer figure that governs the minimum wage.
The Department of Commerce poster states the overtime rule and its gross-sales cutoff in one sentence.
Two carve-outs narrow the rule further. Agricultural employees are excluded from the overtime provision altogether.
And Ohio's analog to the federal Portal-to-Portal Act, Section 4111.031, generally keeps commuting, preliminary and postliminary tasks, and insubstantial off-schedule time out of the overtime calculation . Those exclusions are not absolute: division (B) restores compensability when the activity happens during the regular workday or prescribed hours or at the employer's specific direction, and division (C) does so when an express contract or a qualifying custom or practice covers it. Taken together, these provisions leave most Ohio employees on the same 40-hour weekly standard the FLSA sets, with no separate daily-overtime regime.
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B.1 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.03Section 4111.03(A) requires overtime at one and one-half times the regular rate for hours worked over forty in a workweek and incorporates the exemptions of FLSA sections 7 and 13, so Ohio overtime is a weekly-only rule with no daily tier.
Except as provided in section 4111.031 of the Revised Code, an employer shall pay an employee for overtime at a wage rate of one and one-half times the employee's wage rate for hours worked in excess of forty hours in one workweek, in the manner and methods provided in and subject to the exemptions of section 7 and section 13 of the "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938," 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U.S.C.A. 207, 213, as amended, and, effective beginning on the effective date of this amendment , sections 2 and 4 of the "Portal to Portal Act of 1947," 29 U.S.C. 252 and 254.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.03(A).
Official source · Agency guidance
B.2 Ohio Department of Commerce, 2026 Minimum WagePDFThe Department of Commerce's 2026 poster states the overtime rule — time-and-a-half over forty hours in a workweek — and limits it to employers grossing $150,000 or more per year.
An employer shall pay an employee for overtime at a wage rate of one and one-half times the employee’s wage rate for hours in excess of 40 hours in one work week, except for employers grossing less than $150,000 per year.
See Ohio Department of Commerce, 2026 Minimum Wage.
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B.4 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.03Section 4111.03(A) excludes agricultural employees from the overtime provision entirely.
Any employee employed in agriculture shall not be covered by the overtime provision of this section.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.03(A).
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B.3 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.031Section 4111.031(A)(1), Ohio's Portal-to-Portal analog, generally excludes commuting, preliminary and postliminary activities, and insubstantial off-schedule time from the hours that count toward overtime, except as provided in divisions (B) and (C), which restore compensability for activity during the regular workday or at the employer's specific direction, or covered by contract, custom, or practice.
Except as provided in divisions (B) and (C) of this section, an employer is not required to pay the overtime wage rate under section 4111.03 of the Revised Code to an employee for any time that the employee spends performing any of the following activities: (a) Walking, riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of performance of the principal activity or activities that the employee is employed to perform; (b) Activities that are preliminary to or postliminary to the principal activity or activities; (c) Activities requiring insubstantial or insignificant periods of time beyond the employee's scheduled working hours.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.031(A)(1).
Are breaks required?
No — not for adults. Ohio has no statute requiring meal or rest breaks for adult employees, so break policy is left to the employer and to the FLSA rules on which breaks count as paid working time. The only Ohio break mandate is for minors: Section 4109.07 bars an employer from working a minor more than five consecutive hours without a rest period of at least thirty minutes . That rule carries a criminal penalty — a violation of the break provision is a minor misdemeanor .
The child-labor break rule is the exception that proves the point: Ohio legislated a break entitlement only for workers under eighteen, and stopped there.
That mandate is enforced, not merely aspirational: the penalty section reaches the break provision directly.
For adults, break compensation is a matter of federal law. Under the FLSA, short rest breaks an employer chooses to offer count as paid working time, while a bona fide meal period of thirty minutes or more, during which the employee is fully relieved of duties, need not be paid. Ohio adds nothing on top for the adult workforce.
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C.1 Ohio Rev. Code § 4109.07Section 4109.07(C) prohibits working a minor more than five consecutive hours without a rest period of at least thirty minutes.
No employer shall employ a minor more than five consecutive hours without allowing the minor a rest period of at least thirty minutes.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4109.07(C).
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C.2 Ohio Rev. Code § 4109.99Section 4109.99(A) makes a violation of the minor rest-break provision, division (C) of section 4109.07, a minor misdemeanor, so the break mandate is criminally enforced.
Whoever violates section 4109.04, division (C) of section 4109.07, division (A), (B), or (D) of section 4109.08, section 4109.11, or division (B) of section 4109.12 of the Revised Code is guilty of a minor misdemeanor.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4109.99(A).
When is final pay due?
Ohio sets no separation-specific deadline for final pay. There is no statute making wages due on the day of discharge or within a fixed number of days after a quit; final wages are simply governed by the ordinary wage-payment statute, whose default schedule sets first-of-the-month and fifteenth-of-the-month paydays . In practice that means final pay, whether the worker quit or was discharged, is due on the next regularly scheduled payday.
Because no statute accelerates the deadline, the timing question turns on the ordinary pay cycle rather than on the manner of separation — a discharge and a voluntary quit are treated alike.
A worker who is shorted on the final paycheck pursues the money as an ordinary unpaid-wage claim under this same statute, which supplies its own late-payment penalty — addressed in the next question.
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D.1 Ohio Rev. Code § 4113.15Section 4113.15(A) sets Ohio's ordinary pay cycle — first-of-the-month and fifteenth-of-the-month paydays — and there is no separation-specific final-pay statute, so final wages are due on the next regularly scheduled payday.
Every employer doing business in this state shall, on or before the first day of each month, pay all its employees the wages earned by them during the first half of the preceding month ending with the fifteenth day thereof, and shall, on or before the fifteenth day of each month, pay such employees the wages earned by them during the last half of the preceding calendar month.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4113.15(A).
What is the penalty for late or unpaid wages?
Ohio attaches a liquidated-damages penalty to wages that stay unpaid. Once wages remain unpaid for thirty days beyond the regularly scheduled payday — with no contest, court order, or dispute, including a counterclaim, accounting for the nonpayment — the employer owes, on top of the wages, an extra amount equal to six per cent of the unpaid claim or two hundred dollars, whichever is greater . The penalty attaches once the thirty-day clock runs on an undisputed claim, which gives an employer a strong incentive to resolve a wage shortfall promptly rather than let it age.
The statute ties the penalty to a clear trigger: thirty days of nonpayment past the scheduled payday, absent a contest or dispute accounting for it.
Because the extra amount is the greater of a percentage or a flat two hundred dollars, even a small unpaid balance carries a meaningful penalty, and a contest or dispute over whether the wages are owed suspends it.
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E.1 Ohio Rev. Code § 4113.15Section 4113.15(B) imposes liquidated damages equal to six per cent of the unpaid claim or two hundred dollars, whichever is greater, once undisputed wages remain unpaid thirty days beyond the regularly scheduled payday.
Where wages remain unpaid for thirty days beyond the regularly scheduled payday or, in the case where no regularly scheduled payday is applicable, for sixty days beyond the filing by the employee of a claim or for sixty days beyond the date of the agreement, award, or other act making wages payable and no contest court order or dispute of any wage claim including the assertion of a counterclaim exists accounting for nonpayment, the employer, in addition, as liquidated damages, is liable to the employee in an amount equal to six per cent of the amount of the claim still unpaid and not in contest or disputed or two hundred dollars, whichever is greater.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4113.15(B).
How often must workers be paid?
Ohio's default pay schedule is semimonthly. The wage-payment statute sets first-of-the-month and fifteenth-of-the-month deadlines — pay for the first half of the month by the first of the next month, and pay for the second half by the fifteenth — while allowing more frequent daily or weekly paydays and permitting a longer lapse where that is customary to a given trade, profession, or occupation, or is established by written contract or by operation of law . Separately, the Pay Stub Protection Act (R.C. 4113.14) requires every employer to give each employee an itemized wage statement — written or electronic — on each regular payday . The statement must list the employee's name and address, the employer's name, gross and net wages, each addition and deduction, the pay date and pay period, and, for hourly workers, the hours worked, the hourly rate, and the hours worked in excess of forty in a workweek.
The default semimonthly cadence is the same rule that fixes the ordinary payday for final-pay purposes: pay is due twice a month unless a longer lawful interval applies, and an employer may always pay more often.
The Pay Stub Protection Act adds a transparency requirement that Ohio law previously lacked: a statement of earnings and deductions each payday.
The Act does not create a private damages action. An employee who does not receive a compliant statement makes a written request; the employer then has ten days to provide it; and the employee may report a continued failure to the director of commerce, who can require the employer to post a notice of the violation.
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F.1 Ohio Rev. Code § 4113.15Section 4113.15(A) sets Ohio's default pay schedule — first-of-the-month and fifteenth-of-the-month paydays — while expressly permitting more frequent daily or weekly payment and a longer lapse customary to a trade, profession, or occupation, or established by written contract or operation of law.
Every employer doing business in this state shall, on or before the first day of each month, pay all its employees the wages earned by them during the first half of the preceding month ending with the fifteenth day thereof, and shall, on or before the fifteenth day of each month, pay such employees the wages earned by them during the last half of the preceding calendar month.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4113.15(A).
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F.2 Ohio Rev. Code § 4113.14Section 4113.14(B), the Pay Stub Protection Act, requires every employer to provide each employee a written or electronic itemized statement of earnings and deductions on each regular payday.
Every employer shall provide each of the employer's employees with a written or electronic statement or access to a statement of the employee's earnings and deductions for each pay period on the employer's regular paydays.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4113.14(B).
Employee or independent contractor?
For wage-and-hour purposes, Ohio uses the FLSA economic-realities test — not a state ABC test. The implementing statute, enacted under Article II, section 34a, gives the terms employer, employee, employ, person, and independent contractor the same meanings they carry under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and directs that federal-court and U.S. Department of Labor interpretations receive due consideration and great weight . Because the definition of who is an employee is borrowed from federal law, the classification question in a minimum-wage or overtime dispute is answered by the federal economic-realities analysis of whether the worker is economically dependent on the employer or in business for themselves.
The definitional cross-reference is decisive: Ohio's wage statute does not write its own test — it adopts the FLSA's meanings wholesale.
Outside the wage statutes, Ohio still uses the common-law right-of-control test for questions like tort liability, workers' compensation, and agency — so a worker can be an independent contractor for one purpose and an employee for another. For unpaid-wage and overtime claims, though, the FLSA economic-realities test governs.
A bill introduced in the 136th General Assembly, House Bill 624, remains pending in committee; it would amend Sections 4111.03 and 4111.14 and enact a new Section 4111.20 to codify an express economic-reality test for the employee-or-independent-contractor question under Ohio's wage laws. It has not been enacted, so the borrowed FLSA test continues to control.
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G.1 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.14Section 4111.14(B), implementing Article II, section 34a, gives employer, employee, employ, person, and independent contractor the same meanings as under the FLSA and directs great weight to federal interpretations, importing the federal economic-realities test for worker classification.
In accordance with Section 34a of Article II, Ohio Constitution, the terms "employer," "employee," "employ," "person," and "independent contractor" have the same meanings as in the "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938," 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U.S.C. 203, as amended.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.14(B).
Is a tip credit allowed?
Yes — a partial one. Article II, section 34a lets an employer pay a tipped employee a cash wage of not less than half the minimum wage, so long as the employer can demonstrate that tips plus cash wages equal or exceed the full minimum wage for all hours worked . At the 2026 rates that means a tipped cash wage of $5.50 against the $11.00 minimum, with any shortfall between tips and the full wage made up by the employer. A tipped employee, the Department of Commerce explains, is one who customarily and regularly receives more than thirty dollars a month in tips .
The constitutional rule caps the credit at half the wage: the tipped cash wage can never fall below fifty per cent of the applicable minimum, and the tip-credit arithmetic must still reach the full minimum for every hour.
Whether a worker qualifies as tipped in the first place turns on the same thirty-dollar-a-month threshold the FLSA uses.
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H.1 Ohio Const. art. II, § 34aArticle II, section 34a permits a tipped cash wage of not less than half the minimum wage if the employer can demonstrate that tips plus cash wages equal or exceed the full minimum wage for all hours worked.
An employer may pay an employee less than, but not less than half, the minimum wage rate required by this section if the employer is able to demonstrate that the employee receives tips that combined with the wages paid by the employer are equal to or greater than the minimum wage rate for all hours worked.
See Ohio Const. art. II, § 34a.
Official source · Agency guidance
H.2 Ohio Department of Commerce, 2026 Minimum WagePDFThe Department of Commerce's 2026 poster defines a tipped employee as one who customarily and regularly receives more than thirty dollars a month in tips.
“Tipped Employees” includes any employee who engages in an occupation in which he/she customarily and regularly receives more than thirty dollars ($30.00) per month in tips.
See Ohio Department of Commerce, 2026 Minimum Wage.
How is wage-and-hour law enforced?
Ohio wage-and-hour law is enforced by the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Industrial Compliance, and through private lawsuits . For a minimum-wage violation, the attorney general or an employee may bring an action for equitable and monetary relief ordinarily within three years of the violation, or its cessation for a continuing violation, or within one year after the state's final disposition of a complaint, whichever is later — including in the common pleas court of the employee's county of residence . The remedy is substantial: a prevailing worker recovers back wages plus damages equal to an additional two times the back wages, together with the employee's costs and reasonable attorney's fees, and anti-retaliation violations carry a floor of one hundred fifty dollars for each day the violation continued.
The minimum-wage action can be brought by the state or the worker, and the limitations period runs three years from the violation, or its cessation for a continuing violation, with a one-year-after-state-disposition alternative when that is later.
The damages provision doubles the back wages and sets a per-day floor for retaliation.
A separate overtime action lies under Section 4111.10, but it imposes a federal-style opt-in rule: no worker joins a collective overtime suit without first filing written consent.
On the administrative side, the director of commerce may investigate wages and, if an employer blocks the inquiry, compel records and testimony by subpoena.
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I.2 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.14Section 4111.14(K) lets the attorney general or an employee bring a minimum-wage action for equitable and monetary relief within three years of the violation (or one year after the state's final disposition of a complaint, whichever is later), including in the common pleas court of the employee's county of residence.
In accordance with Section 34a of Article II, Ohio Constitution, an action for equitable and monetary relief may be brought against an employer by the attorney general and/or an employee or person acting on behalf of an employee or all similarly situated employees in any court of competent jurisdiction, including the court of common pleas of an employee's county of residence, for any violation of Section 34a of Article II, Ohio Constitution, or any law or regulation implementing its provisions within three years of the violation or of when the violation ceased if it was of a continuing nature, or within one year after notification to the employee of final disposition by the state of a complaint for the same violation, whichever is later.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.14(K).
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I.3 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.14Section 4111.14(J) sets minimum-wage damages at an additional two times the back wages, with anti-retaliation violations carrying a floor of one hundred fifty dollars for each day the violation continued.
In accordance with Section 34a of Article II, Ohio Constitution, damages shall be calculated as an additional two times the amount of the back wages and in the case of a violation of an anti-retaliation provision an amount set by the state or court sufficient to compensate the employee and deter future violations, but not less than one hundred fifty dollars for each day that the violation continued.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.14(J).
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I.5 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.10Section 4111.10(C) imposes a federal-style opt-in requirement on overtime actions: no employee joins a collective suit without first filing written consent with the court.
No employee shall join as a party plaintiff in any civil action that is brought under this section by an employee, person acting on behalf of an employee, or person acting on behalf of all similarly situated employees unless that employee first gives written consent to become such a party plaintiff and that consent is filed with the court in which the action is brought.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.10(C).
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I.6 Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.04Section 4111.04(C) empowers the director of commerce, when an employer blocks a wage investigation, to issue subpoenas and compel witnesses and the production of payroll records and testimony.
In the event the director is prohibited by any employer from carrying out the intent of this section, the director may issue subpoenas and compel attendance of witnesses and production of papers, books, accounts, payrolls, documents, records, and testimony relating and relevant to the director's investigation.
See Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.04(C).
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I.4 Ohio Const. art. II, § 34aArticle II, section 34a entitles a prevailing worker to back wages, damages, and the employee's costs and reasonable attorney's fees, payable within thirty days of a finding of violation.
Where an employer is found by the state or a court to have violated any provision of this section, the employer shall within thirty days of the finding pay the employee back wages, damages, and the employee's costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
See Ohio Const. art. II, § 34a.
Official source · Agency guidance
I.1 Ohio Department of Commerce, 2026 Minimum WagePDFThe Department of Commerce's 2026 poster identifies the Division of Industrial Compliance as the office that administers Ohio's minimum-wage law and answers wage inquiries.
For further information about minimum wage issues, please contact: The Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Industrial Compliance, 6606 Tussing Road, Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068.
See Ohio Department of Commerce, 2026 Minimum Wage.