Attorneys & Professionals

Like the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Ohio’s overtime law requires that employees be paid 1.5 times their regular hourly rate for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek. Ohio recently enacted Senate Bill 47, which excludes traveling to and from worksites and performing certain routine tasks from overtime pay requirements. The new law also prohibits opt-out class actions for overtime violations under Ohio law. The law becomes effective on July 6, 2022.

Portal to Portal Act

Senate Bill 47 incorporates the exemptions found in the federal Portal to Portal Act which provide immunity from liability under the FLSA when an employer does not pay overtime under certain circumstances.

Under the new Ohio law, an employer will not be required to pay overtime compensation for any time that an employee spends:

1. Walking, riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of performance of the principal activity or activities that the employee is employed to perform;
2. Activities that are preliminary to or postliminary to the principal activity or activities;
3. Activities requiring insubstantial or insignificant periods of time beyond the employee's scheduled working hours.

The overtime exemption applies to any activity that occurs either before the time on any particular workday at which the employee begins, or after the time on any particular workday at which the employee ends, a principal activity.

However, the new law’s exemption from the...

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