Wage and hour laws are set at both the state and the federal level, governed by legal standards like the Minimum Fair Wage Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
For instance, there is a federal minimum wage that must be met in most cases. The state minimum wage can be set higher than that — the federal wage is at $7.25 per hour currently — but any lower state wages are overruled by the federal wage.
So, when looking at things like overtime pay, it’s important to understand the laws on all levels. Here are four different rules about overtime that must be followed by companies in Ohio:
- An employer does not have to pay overtime wages if the gross for the year comes in under $150,000.
- Otherwise, overtime pay is required when workers are on the job for more than 40 hours in a week. They are entitled to 1.5 times their normal pay for additional hours.
- Government employees can use comp time, but not other employees.
- Overtime is not required, on a mandatory basis, if someone works more than eight hours in a single day. So, someone could work nine hours for four days in a row, then just four hours on Friday, and he or she would not get overtime because that’s still just 40 hours for the entire week. Those four hours that go over the standard eight-hour workday are just factored into the weekly total.
It is very important for workers and employers to know all of the legal rights they have in the workplace, especially when there is a dispute over wages.
Source: FindLaw, “Ohio Overtime Laws,” accessed Jan. 4, 2018