Law regarding Ohio's overtime pay law is located in Title XLI, Chapters 4111 of the Ohio Revised Code Annotated.

• 4111.01 Minimum Fair Wage Standards. Definitions.
• 4111.03 Overtime.
• 4111.08 Records to be kept by employers.
• 4111.09 Summary and rules to be posted and available to employees.
• 4111.13 Prohibited acts by employer.

As used in sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code:

(A) "Wage" means compensation due to an employee by reason of his employment, payable in legal tender of the United States or checks on banks convertible into cash on demand at full face value, subject to the deductions, charges, or allowances permitted by rules of the director of commerce under section 4111.05 of the Revised Code. "Wage" includes an employee's commissions of which the employee's employer keeps a record, but does not include gratuities, except as provided by rules issued under section 4111.05 of the Revised Code.

"Wage" also includes the reasonable cost to the employer of furnishing to an employee board, lodging, or other facilities, if the board, lodging, or other facilities are customarily furnished by the employer to the employer's employees. The cost of board, lodging, or other facilities shall not be included as part of wage to the extent excluded therefrom under the terms of a bona fide collective bargaining agreement applicable to the employee.

(B) "Occupation" means any occupation, service, trade, business, industry, or branch or group of industries or employment or class of employment in which individuals are employed.

(C) "Employer" means the state of Ohio, its instrumentalities, and its political subdivisions and their instrumentalities, any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, or any person or group of persons, acting in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, but does not include an employer whose annual gross volume of sales made for business done is less than one hundred fifty thousand dollars, exclusive of excise taxes at the retail level which are separately stated.

(D) "Employee" means any individual employed by an employer but does not include:

(1) Any individual employed by the United States;

(2) Any individual employed as a baby-sitter in the employer's home, or a live-in companion to a sick, convalescing, or elderly person whose principal duties do not include housekeeping;

(3) Any individual engaged in the delivery of newspapers to the consumer;

(4) Any individual employed as an outside salesperson compensated by commissions or in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity as such terms are defined by the "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938," 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U.S.C.A. 201, as amended;

(5) Any employee employed in agriculture if the employee is employed by an employer who did not, during any calendar quarter during the preceding calendar year, use more than five hundred worker-days of agricultural labor, or if the employee is the parent, spouse, child, or other member of the employer's immediate family;

(6) Any individual who works or provides personal services of a charitable nature in a hospital or health institution for which compensation is not sought or contemplated;

(7) A member of a police or fire protection agency or student employed on a part-time or seasonal basis by a political subdivision of this state;

(8) Any individual in the employ of a camp or recreational area for children under eighteen years of age and owned and operated by a nonprofit organization or group of organizations described in Section 501(c)(3) of the "Internal Revenue Code of 1954," and exempt from income tax under Section 501(a) of that code;

(9) Any individual employed directly by the house of representatives or directly by the senate.

(E) "Occupation" means any occupation, service, trade, business, industry, or branch or group of industries or employment or class of employment in which individuals are employed.

4111.03 Overtime.

(A) 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. Any employee employed in agriculture shall not be covered by the overtime provision of this section.

(B) For the purposes of this section, the number of hours worked by a county employee in any one workweek shall be deemed to include, in addition to hours actually worked, all periods in an active pay status.

(C) If a county employee elects to take compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay, for any overtime worked, such compensatory time may be granted by the employee's administrative superior, on a time and one-half basis, at a time mutually convenient to the employee and the administrative superior within one hundred eighty days after the overtime is worked.

(D) A county appointing authority with the exception of the county department of job and family services may, by rule or resolution as is appropriate, indicate the authority's intention not to be bound by division (B) or (C) of this section, and to adopt a different policy for the calculation and payment of overtime that is embodied in those divisions. Upon adoption, the alternative policy prevails. Prior to the adoption of an alternative overtime policy, the county appointing authority with the exception of the county department of job and family services shall give a written notice of the alternative policy to each employee at least ten days prior to the effective date of the policy.

(E) As used in this section:

(1) "Employ" means to suffer or to permit to work.

(2) "Employer" means the state of Ohio, its instrumentalities, and its political subdivisions and their instrumentalities, any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, or any person or group of persons, acting in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, but does not include an employer whose annual gross volume of sales made for business done is less than one hundred fifty thousand dollars, exclusive of excise taxes at the retail level which are separately stated.

(3) "Employee" means any individual employed by an employer but does not include:

(a) Any individual employed by the United States;

(b) Any individual employed as a baby-sitter in the employer's home, or a live-in companion to a sick, convalescing, or elderly person whose principal duties do not include housekeeping;

(c) Any individual engaged in the delivery of newspapers to the consumer;

(d) Any individual employed as an outside salesperson compensated by commissions or employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity as such terms are defined by the "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938," 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U.S.C.A. 201, as amended;

(e) Any individual who works or provides personal services of a charitable nature in a hospital or health institution for which compensation is not sought or contemplated;

(f) A member of a police or fire protection agency or student employed on a part-time or seasonal basis by a political subdivision of this state;

(g) Any individual in the employ of a camp or recreational area for children under eighteen years of age and owned and operated by a nonprofit organization or group of organizations described in Section 501 (c)(3) of the "Internal Revenue Code of 1954," and exempt from income tax under Section 501 (a) of that code;

(h) Any individual employed directly by the house of representatives or directly by the senate.

4111.04 Investigation of wages; inspection of employer records.

The director of commerce may:

(A) Investigate and ascertain the wages of persons employed in any occupation in the state;

(B) Enter and inspect the place of business or employment of any employer for the purpose of inspecting any books, registers, payrolls, or other records of the employer that in any way relate to the question of wages, hours, and other conditions of employment of any employees, and may question the employees for the purpose of ascertaining whether sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code, and the rules adopted thereunder, have been and are being obeyed. In conducting an inspection of the records of an employer, the director shall make every effort to coordinate the inspection with those conducted by the federal agency responsible for enforcement of the "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938," 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U.S.C.A. 201, as amended. If the federal agency has completed an audit or examination of the employer's records within the sixty days prior to the date the director notifies the employer of the director's intent to examine the employer's records, the director shall accept in lieu of the director's own inspection, a report from the federal agency that the employer is in compliance with the federal act, unless the director has reasonable grounds for believing that the report is inaccurate or incomplete for the purposes of sections 4111.01 to 4111.13 of the Revised Code, or that events occurring since the audit give the director reasonable grounds for believing that a violation of sections 4111.01 to 4111.13 of the Revised Code has occurred.

(C) In the event the director is prohibited by any employer from carrying out the intent of this section, the director may apply to any court of common pleas having jurisdiction of that employer or the place of employment under investigation, for an order directing compliance with this section. Failure of the employer to obey the order of the court may be punished by said court as a contempt thereof.

Sec. 4111.08. Records to be kept by employers. Effective UNTIL 1/1/2010.

Every employer subject to sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code, or to any rule adopted thereunder, shall make and keep for a period of not less than three years a record of the name, address, and occupation of each of the employer's employees, the rate of pay and the amount paid each pay period to each employee, the hours worked each day and each work week by the employee, and other information as the director of commerce prescribes by rule as necessary or appropriate for the enforcement of sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code, or of the rules thereunder. Records may be opened for inspection or copying by the director at any reasonable time. Any records an employer creates on or before December 31, 2006, shall be created and maintained in accordance with this section.

Sec. 4111.08. Records to be kept by employers . Effective 1/1/2010.

Every employer subject to section 4111.03 of the Revised Code, or to any rule adopted thereunder, shall make and keep for a period of not less than three years a record of the name, address, and occupation of each of the employer's employees, the rate of pay and the amount paid each pay period to each employee, the hours worked each day and each work week by the employee, and other information as the director of commerce prescribes by rule as necessary or appropriate for the enforcement of section 4111.03 of the Revised Code, or of the rules thereunder. Records may be opened for inspection or copying by the director at any reasonable time.

Sec. 4111.09. Summary and rules to be posted and available to employees.

Every employer subject to sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code, or to any rules issued thereunder, shall keep a summary of the sections, approved by the director of commerce, and copies of any applicable rules issued thereunder, or a summary of the rules, posted in a conspicuous and accessible place in or about the premises wherein any person subject thereto is employed. The director of commerce shall make the summary described in this section available on the web site of the department of commerce. The director shall update this summary as necessary, but not less than annually, in order to reflect changes in the minimum wage rate as required under Section 34a of Article II, Ohio Constitution. Employees and employers shall be furnished copies of the summaries and rules by the state, on request, without charge.

4111.12 Right to collective bargaining.

Nothing in sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code interferes with, impedes, or in any way diminishes the right of employees to bargain collectively with their employers through representatives of their own choosing in order to establish wages or other conditions of work in excess of the applicable minimum under sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code.

4111.13 Prohibited acts by employer.

(A) No employer shall hinder or delay the director of commerce in the performance of the director's duties in the enforcement of sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code, or refuse to admit the director to any place of employment, or fail to make, keep, and preserve any records as required under those sections, or falsify any of those records, or refuse to make them accessible to the director upon demand, or refuse to furnish them or any other information required for the proper enforcement of those sections to the director upon demand, or fail to post a summary of those sections or a copy of any applicable rules as required by section 4111.09 of the Revised Code. Each day of violation constitutes a separate offense.

(B) No employer shall discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because the employee has made any complaint to the employee's employer, or to the director, that the employee has not been paid wages in accordance with sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code, or because the employee has made any complaint or is about to cause to be instituted any proceeding under or related to those sections, or because the employee has testified or is about to testify in any proceeding.

(C) No employer shall pay or agree to pay wages at a rate less than the rate applicable under sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code. Each week or portion thereof for which the employer pays any employee less than the rate applicable under those sections constitutes a separate offense as to each employer.

(D) No employer shall otherwise violate sections 4111.01 to 4111.17 of the Revised Code, or any rule adopted thereunder. Each day of violation constitutes a separate offense.

4111.99 Penalties.

(A) Whoever violates division (A) or (D) of section 4111.13 of the Revised Code is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree.

(B) Whoever violates division (B) or (C) of section 4111.13 of the Revised Code is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree.

(C) Whoever violates section 4111.17 of the Revised Code is guilty of a minor misdemeanor.