What You Have To Be Paid
Ohio Const. art. II, § 34a — a rate that rises on its own, and three times what was not paid
Ohio's minimum wage is not set by a bill somebody has to pass. It is in the constitution, and what the constitution contains is the arithmetic that moves it, which is why the rate is different every January and why nobody has to vote for that to happen.
The rate rises on a date, whether or not anybody acts. On the thirtieth day of each September the state minimum wage rate is increased, effective the first day of the following January, by the rate of inflation for the twelve month period before that September according to the consumer price index. An employer still paying last year's rate in February is paying below the minimum, and no announcement was required to make that so.
This page does not print the figure, for the same reason. What the constitution fixes is the formula, and the number it produces is in force for one year at a time; the rate currently in force is published by the Ohio Department of Commerce.
Two kinds of employee are outside the state rate. Employees under the age of sixteen, and employees of a business whose annual gross receipts for the preceding calendar year are at or under the threshold, are paid not less than the rate established under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act instead. The threshold began at two hundred fifty thousand dollars and has been increased every year since the first of January 2008 by the same consumer price index, rounded to the nearest one thousand dollars, so it is a moving figure as well and the old one is the wrong one to check against.
Overtime is one and one half, over forty, in a workweek. An employer pays 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 sections 7 and 13 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The workweek is the unit that matters: eighty hours worked as thirty hours in one week and fifty hours in the next contains ten hours of overtime, not none, and a fortnight is not a unit the section uses.
The state overtime section reaches employers whose annual gross receipts are more than one hundred fifty thousand dollars, and an employee employed in agriculture is not covered by it. Where the state section does not reach an employer, the federal act may still, on its own coverage tests, which are not the same tests.
What is owed is three times what was not paid. Where an employer is found by the state or by a court to have violated the section, the employer pays the employee back wages, damages, and the employee's costs and reasonable attorney's fees, within thirty days of the finding. Damages are calculated as an additional two times the amount of the back wages, so the figure at the end is three times the amount that went unpaid rather than the amount itself.
Where what was violated is the anti retaliation provision, the amount is set by the state or the court at a level sufficient to compensate the employee and to deter future violations, and not less than one hundred fifty dollars for each day that the violation continued.
An action may be brought by the state, by an employee, by a person acting on behalf of an employee, or on behalf of all similarly situated employees, within three years of the violation or of the date the violation ceased where it was a continuing one.
| What the employer keeps | For whom |
|---|---|
| What the employer keepsName, address and occupation | For whomEach employee |
| What the employer keepsThe rate of pay | For whomEach employee |
| What the employer keepsThe amount paid each pay period | For whomEach employee |
| What the employer keepsThe hours worked each day | For whomEach employee |
| What the employer keepsThe hours worked each week | For whomEach employee |
Who may ask for that record is a short list. The record reaches the employee, and on the employee's behalf it reaches only a certified or legally recognised collective bargaining representative for that employee, the employee's attorney, or the employee's parent, guardian or legal custodian. A person outside that list asking on somebody's behalf is asking for something the section does not give them.
Tipped employees, exempt salaried positions, the federal coverage tests, and which hours count as hours worked are each their own body of law and are not on this page. Whether a particular job is exempt, and what a particular claim is worth, are questions for a licensed Ohio attorney. The Ohio Department of Commerce's division of industrial compliance takes minimum wage complaints, and the federal wage and hour division takes complaints under the federal act.
Sources for this section (5)
- Ohio Const. art. II, § 34a — Minimum wage, the yearly adjustment, and what an underpaid employee is owed
- ORC 4111.02 — Wage rates, which are the rate section 34a sets
- ORC 4111.03 — Overtime, at one and one half over forty hours in a workweek
- ORC 4111.08 — The record an employer keeps for every employee
- ORC 4111.14 — Implementing the constitutional minimum wage, and who may see the record
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Talk to a licensed Ohio attorney about your situation.