Ohio Wage and Hour: Minimum Wage, Overtime, and Filing Claims

Ohio wage and hour laws set a $11.00 hourly minimum wage for most workers in 2026, require overtime at one and a half times your regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek, and give you the right to file a complaint or sue if your employer underpays. Tipped workers have a $5.50 base rate, with the employer required to top up any shortfall to reach $11.00. These protections come from the Ohio Constitution, Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4111, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration enforces them.

Minimum Wage in 2026

The state minimum wage is $11.00 per hour for non-tipped employees and $5.50 per hour for tipped employees as of January 1, 2026. If a tipped worker’s tips plus base rate don’t reach $11.00 an hour, the employer has to pay the difference.¹ The rate adjusts every January 1 based on the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers.²

Two exceptions bring the rate down to the federal floor of $7.25. If your employer’s annual gross receipts are $405,000 or less, that lower rate applies.¹ Workers under 16 also earn $7.25 regardless of employer size.

Overtime Pay

Ohio Revised Code 4111.03 requires time-and-a-half for every hour past 40 in a single workweek.³ Each seven-day period is judged on its own. An employer can’t offset a 30-hour week against a 50-hour week to avoid the premium.

Ohio’s overtime statute pulls in the federal FLSA’s rules for what counts as work time, including the Portal-to-Portal Act.³ Required prep, cleanup, and travel between job sites during the workday generally count. Your commute from home doesn’t.

Bonuses and the Regular Rate

Your regular rate for overtime purposes isn’t always the plain hourly wage. Nondiscretionary bonuses — production, attendance, quality, and safety bonuses that employees expect — get folded into the regular rate before overtime is calculated.⁴ Add the bonus to your straight-time pay for the week, divide by hours worked to get the adjusted regular rate, and pay half that rate as a premium for each overtime hour. Labeling a bonus “discretionary” doesn’t change the analysis if workers reasonably anticipated it.

Who Is Exempt

Not every worker qualifies for overtime. Ohio follows the federal FLSA’s white-collar exemption structure, which requires an employee to pass both a salary test and a duties test.³

The salary threshold sits at $684 per week, or $35,568 per year, after a federal court blocked the Department of Labor’s 2024 attempt to raise it. Highly compensated employees remain exempt if they earn at least $107,432 annually.⁵ Salary alone doesn’t make you exempt — your actual duties have to match one of the recognized categories:

Executive employees primarily manage the business or a recognized department and supervise at least two full-time workers.
Administrative employees perform office work tied to business operations or management policies and exercise independent judgment on significant matters.
Professional employees do work that requires advanced knowledge in a specialized field, usually gained through extended formal education.

Outside salespeople who work mostly away from the employer’s location are also exempt, as are seasonal workers at certain nonprofit recreational programs. Job title doesn’t decide the question. What you actually do all day does.

Pay Frequency and Deductions

Ohio requires wages to be paid at least twice a month. Under ORC 4113.15, wages earned through the 15th must be paid by the 1st of the following month, and wages for the second half must be paid by the 15th.⁶ Weekly or daily pay is fine, and a longer cycle is allowed if it’s customary in the trade or set by written agreement.

When wages sit unpaid 30 days past the regular payday and the employer has no legitimate dispute, the employer owes liquidated damages of 6% of the unpaid amount or $200, whichever is greater.⁶ That’s automatic under state law, on top of any minimum wage or overtime claim.

Paycheck deductions have limits, too. Under the FLSA, an employer cannot deduct the cost of required uniforms, tools, or other items that primarily benefit the business if the deduction would drop your pay below minimum wage, even when the employer’s loss came from employee error.⁷

Meal and Rest Breaks

Ohio does not require employers to give adult employees meal or rest breaks. No state statute mandates lunch, coffee, or other break time for workers 18 and older. When employers do offer breaks, breaks under 20 minutes generally count as paid work time under federal rules, while a bona fide meal period of 30 minutes or more can be unpaid if you’re fully relieved of duties.

Minors are covered differently. Ohio prohibits working anyone under 18 for more than five consecutive hours without at least a 30-minute rest.⁸

Retaliation Is Illegal

Your employer cannot fire you, cut your hours, demote you, or otherwise punish you for raising a wage complaint. ORC 4111.13(B) covers complaints to a supervisor, to the Director of Commerce, or in connection with a legal proceeding over wages.⁹

The penalties are heavy. Under the state constitution’s implementing statute, damages include double back wages plus at least $150 for every day the retaliation continues, and retaliation is also a third-degree misdemeanor.⁹ Federal law adds another layer under 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3), letting courts award reinstatement, lost wages, and an equal amount in liquidated damages.¹⁰

Employee or Independent Contractor

Every protection in this article applies only to employees. Independent contractors get none of them: no minimum wage, no overtime, no anti-retaliation rights. If your employer calls you a contractor but sets your schedule, provides your tools, and treats you like staff, you may in fact be an employee owed back wages.

Ohio’s statute follows the FLSA’s definitions and gives “great weight” to how federal courts and the Department of Labor interpret them.¹¹ The core question is whether you’re economically dependent on the business (employee) or genuinely running your own operation (contractor). Misclassification exposes an employer to back pay for unpaid overtime and minimum wage, liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees.¹²

How to File a Wage Complaint

The Ohio Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration investigates complaints involving minimum wage, unpaid overtime, unauthorized deductions, and withheld final paychecks.¹³ Before you file, gather your employer’s legal name and address, your supervisors’ names, exact employment dates, and a week-by-week accounting of hours worked and pay received. Pay stubs, time logs, offer letters, and any written employment agreement strengthen the case.

Download the Minimum Wage Complaint Form from the Ohio Department of Commerce and submit it with your records by mail, email (wagehour@com.ohio.gov), or fax.¹⁴ The mailing address is Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration, 6606 Tussing Road, P.O. Box 4009, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068-9009. An investigator reviews your materials and may contact your employer to examine payroll records. If violations are confirmed, the state works to recover the back wages owed.

Deadlines for Filing

Don’t wait. Under the FLSA, you have two years from the date of each unpaid paycheck to file, or three years if the violation was willful, meaning the employer knew what it was doing or showed reckless disregard for the law.¹⁵ Each paycheck triggers its own clock, so old violations can drop off even while recent ones remain live.

What Employers Owe When They Underpay

Overlapping state and federal remedies make wage theft expensive. Ohio’s overtime statute makes an underpaying employer liable for the full unpaid overtime plus court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.¹⁶ For minimum wage violations under the state constitution, damages can include double the back wages.⁹

Federal law adds unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the recovery, and courts award attorney’s fees on top.¹⁰ For repeat or willful violations, the Department of Labor can assess civil money penalties up to $2,515 per violation, a figure unchanged for 2026.¹⁷

Employers can’t contract around these rights. An agreement in which you “voluntarily” accept less than the overtime rate is not a defense under Ohio law.¹⁶ And if filing your own lawsuit feels out of reach, the Director of Commerce can take assignment of your claim in writing and pursue it for you.

One practical note on evidence: federal law requires employers to keep payroll records for at least three years and supporting time cards and schedules for at least two years.⁷ Keep your own pay stubs and time logs as a backup. If your employer can’t produce records during an investigation, that usually works in your favor.

1
Ohio.gov. 2026 Minimum Wage Poster
2
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Constitution Article II Section 34a
3
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4111.03 – Overtime
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet – Bonuses Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions
6
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4113.15 – Semimonthly Payment of Wages
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 21 – Recordkeeping Requirements Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
8
Ohio.gov. Minor Labor Laws Poster
9
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4111 – Minimum Fair Wage Standards
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216
11
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4111.14 – Implementing Constitutional Minimum Wage Authority
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Misclassification of Employees as Independent Contractors Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
13
Ohio Department of Commerce. Minimum Wage Complaint
14
Ohio Department of Commerce. Minimum Wage Complaint Form
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255
16
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4111.10
17
Federal Register. Department of Labor Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Annual Adjustments for 2026