The Ohio minimum wage will increase by 10 cents on January 1, 2011 from $7.30 to $7.40 per hour, according to Director Kimberly Zurz of the Ohio Department of Commerce. This rate is 15 cents per hour higher than the federal minimum wage, and applies to employers in Ohio whose annual revenue is $271,000 or more.
This change means that every Ohio employer must update labor law posters, including the state minimum wage poster. The Ohio minimum wage was unchanged from August 2009 to January 2011, remaining at $7.30 per hour for 17 months.
Not every employer is covered by the Ohio minimum wage increase, according to the Division of Industrial Compliance & Labor. Employers with annual revenue of less than $271,000 in 2011 can pay workers just $7.25 per hour. In addition, any Ohio employer can pay workers who are 14 or 15 years old $7.25 per hour. These rates are pegged at the federal minimum wage and are unchanged since July 2008.
The Ohio minimum wage for tipped employees will increase by 5 cents from $3.65 to $3.70 per hour. Tipped employees in Ohio are entitled to at least $7.40 per hour in tips and wages combined. If the tipped employee does not average $7.40 per hour worked over the payroll week, the Ohio employer must pay the difference as wages.
Ohio employers must pay overtime at 1.5 times the employee’s average rate when the employee works more than 40 hours in the payroll week. However, employers with annual revenue less than $150,000 per year are exempt from both the Ohio and federal overtime laws. Those employers must pay workers the regular hourly rate for all hours worked.
A special provision of the Ohio minimum wage law permits employees in hospitals and nursing homes to be paid overtime after 80 hours in a two-week payroll period, as long as they are also paid overtime after 8 hours per day.
Employees in certain occupations are exempt from the Ohio minimum wage including federal employees. Babysitters who work in the client’s home are exempt, but employees of a childcare center are not. A live-in companion to a sick or elderly person is exempt from the minimum wage, but those who also perform housekeeping duties are not. Some handicapped employees including those in sheltered workshops can be paid less, but only with permission of the Ohio Department of Commerce.
Whenever an employee is covered by both a federal and state law, the employee is entitled to protection under whichever law offers the greater benefit. In this case, while the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour with no increase predicted for 2011, Ohio employees are entitled to the higher state minimum wage of $7.40 per hour.
