Ohio overtime law requires most employers to pay non-exempt employees one and a half times their regular rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in a single workweek. The rule comes from Ohio Revised Code 4111.03, which tracks the federal Fair Labor Standards Act but adds its own definition of a covered employer and its own enforcement route.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4111.03 – Overtime If you are covered and your employer refuses to pay, you have up to three years to file a claim and can recover double the unpaid wages plus attorney’s fees.
The 40-Hour Workweek Rule
A workweek in Ohio is a fixed, recurring block of 168 consecutive hours, which is seven straight 24-hour periods.2eCFR. 29 CFR 778.105 – Workweek Your employer chooses when the week starts, and it does not have to match the calendar. Once set, the employer cannot shift the start day around to avoid triggering overtime.
Each workweek stands alone. Averaging hours across two weeks is not allowed. If you work 50 hours one week and 30 the next, you are still owed 10 hours of overtime for the first week. An employee earning $15 per hour would receive $22.50 for every hour past 40.
How Your Regular Rate Is Actually Calculated
The “regular rate” is not always your base hourly wage, and this is where employees often lose money without realizing it. Several forms of pay must be folded in before the 1.5× multiplier is applied.
Non-discretionary bonuses — the kind promised in advance for hitting production targets, attendance, or safety benchmarks — count toward the regular rate.3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 56C: Bonuses Under the Fair Labor Standards Act Shift differentials for night or weekend work and earned commissions do too. A truly discretionary bonus, one the employer has no obligation to pay and decides on after the fact, is excluded.
When you work two jobs at different pay rates for the same employer, the regular rate is usually a weighted average: total straight-time earnings divided by total hours worked. Overtime is then calculated on that blended figure.
Tipped Employees
Ohio’s minimum wage for 2026 is $11.00 per hour, with a tipped cash wage of $5.50 per hour.4Ohio Department of Commerce. 2026 Minimum Wage Poster Overtime for tipped workers is calculated on the full minimum wage, not the reduced cash wage. That means the overtime rate for a tipped employee must be at least $16.50 per hour in 2026 (1.5 × $11.00). The tip credit does not grow for overtime hours.
Travel Between Job Sites
Travel during the workday counts as hours worked. If your employer sends you from one client location to another mid-shift, that drive time adds to your weekly total. Your normal commute from home to a fixed workplace generally does not count. Mileage reimbursement and wages are separate obligations, so getting reimbursed for gas does not cancel out the pay you are owed for the time.
Who Is Exempt From Overtime
Not every worker qualifies. Ohio follows the federal white-collar exemptions, which cover executive, administrative, and professional employees. Two tests both have to be met: a salary test and a duties test. Meeting one alone is not enough.
The Salary Threshold
An exempt white-collar employee must earn a guaranteed salary of at least $684 per week ($35,568 annually). A 2024 rule that would have raised this figure was vacated by a federal court, so the 2019 threshold remains in effect.5U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption Highly compensated employees face a separate threshold of $107,432 in total annual compensation.6U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17G: Salary Basis Requirement and the Part 541 Exemptions Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
The Duties Test
What the employee actually does day to day matters more than the job title on the paperwork. An executive must primarily manage a department or subdivision and direct the work of at least two full-time employees. An administrative employee must exercise independent judgment on significant business matters. A professional must perform work requiring advanced knowledge in a specialized field such as engineering, accounting, or medicine.
Outside Sales and Computer Professionals
Outside salespeople are exempt if their primary duty is making sales and they regularly work away from the employer’s place of business, with no minimum salary required.7U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17F: Exemption for Outside Sales Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act An inside salesperson who occasionally visits clients does not qualify.
Computer professionals can be exempt if they earn at least $27.63 per hour and their primary duties involve systems analysis, software design, or program development.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17E: Exemption for Employees in Computer-Related Occupations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act Repairing hardware or simply using software for other work (a drafter running CAD, for example) does not fit the exemption.
Small Employers and Agricultural Workers
Ohio’s overtime statute has its own definition of a covered employer. Businesses with gross annual sales below $150,000 (not counting retail excise taxes) are not covered by the state overtime requirement.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4111.03 – Overtime A small Ohio business that engages in interstate commerce may still owe overtime under the federal FLSA even so.
Agricultural employees are excluded from Ohio’s overtime statute entirely.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4111.03 – Overtime Federal law also exempts agricultural operations that use fewer than 500 “man-days” of labor in any quarter of the prior year.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 213 – Exemptions
Independent Contractor Misclassification
Some employers try to sidestep overtime by labeling workers as independent contractors. Ohio applies an “economic reality” test that looks at whether the worker is economically dependent on the employer or genuinely operating an independent business.10Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Employee Misclassification No single factor decides it. If you receive a 1099 but your employer controls your schedule, supplies your tools, and you work exclusively for that company, you may legally be an employee entitled to overtime.
Comp Time Is Not Legal in the Private Sector
A frequent violation: an employer offers compensatory time off instead of paying overtime in cash. Private employers in Ohio cannot do this for non-exempt hourly workers. Federal law reserves comp-time arrangements for public-sector employers such as state agencies and local governments.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours If your private employer tells you to bank extra hours this week and take them off next week, that arrangement violates the FLSA. You are still owed time-and-a-half pay for every hour above 40 in the week you actually worked them.
How to File an Ohio Wage Complaint
If your employer refuses to pay overtime, you can file with the Ohio Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration. The Bureau investigates unpaid overtime, minimum wage violations, unauthorized deductions, and withheld final paychecks.12Ohio Department of Commerce. Minimum Wage Complaint You submit the Bureau’s complaint form by mail, email, or fax to the Division of Industrial Compliance in Reynoldsburg.13Ohio Department of Commerce. Instructions for Filing a Minimum Wage Complaint
Have your employer’s legal name and address ready, along with the dates of the violations and copies (not originals) of pay stubs, time sheets, and anything else that helps prove hours worked against wages received. A personal log of your hours can carry real weight, especially when the employer’s records are incomplete. One form can cover both overtime and minimum wage issues.
You can also file directly with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division under the FLSA. For larger or more complex cases, many workers hire an employment attorney. Both Ohio and federal law let a successful claimant recover attorney’s fees from the employer, so many overtime lawyers take these cases on contingency.
Retaliation Is Illegal
Your employer cannot fire, demote, or otherwise punish you for filing a wage complaint or testifying in a wage proceeding.14Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4111 – Minimum Fair Wage Standards – Section 4111.13 The protection applies even if you have only threatened to file. Retaliation can bring criminal misdemeanor charges under ORC 4111.99,15Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 4111.99 – Penalties and the employee can pursue civil damages of at least $150 per day the violation continues.
Deadlines and What You Can Recover
Under the FLSA, you must file within two years of the violation, or three years if you can show the failure to pay was willful — meaning the employer knew what was owed and chose not to pay it.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations Ohio’s constitutional wage provision gives a three-year window for state claims.17Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4111 – Minimum Fair Wage Standards – Section 4111.14 That extra year matters when an employee only realizes the shortfall well after the fact.
Damages usually exceed the unpaid wages themselves. Under the FLSA, a court will award liquidated damages equal to the unpaid overtime, effectively doubling the recovery, unless the employer proves the violation was in good faith.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties Ohio’s constitutional provision similarly allows damages of two times the back wages owed.17Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4111 – Minimum Fair Wage Standards – Section 4111.14 So if an employer owes you $5,000 in unpaid overtime, the judgment could reach $15,000: the original $5,000 plus $10,000 in liquidated damages. Add attorney’s fees, and an employer that ignores overtime obligations faces real financial exposure.