Ohio | Blog | Against | Wage | Theft

After examining data from the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour division, Dayton Daily News (DDN) found that over the last 5 years more than 2,000 Miami Valley workers did not receive the full wages due for time worked. DDN found that 120 Miami Valley companies had to pay back workers for violations of labor law to the tune of nearly $2.3 million.

Zach Schiller, research director with Policy Matters Ohio, member organization of the Ohio Alliance Against Wage Theft, called for increasing state resources to enforce wage laws. Schiller noted that Ohio has only 6 wage and hour investigators covering about 4 million private-sector workers.

You can access more information about the article and search DDN’s database of Ohio companies that were investigated for wage theft here.

Additional information on minimum wage claims in Ohio, including recommendations on how the state could upgrade its overall reporting on wage and hour enforcement is available here.

Senate Bill 107- The Honest Employer Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Michael Skindell and cosponsored by Sen. Capri Cafaro, Sen. Charleta Tavares, and Sen. Joe Schiavoni, received its first hearing before the Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee on November 29. Testimony for a similar bill (HB 137) was heard by the House Commerce and Labor Committee on May 25, 2011.

The bill creates a more uniform definition of the term “employee” for specified labor laws, including the Minimum Fair Wage Standards Law, the Workers’ Compensation Law, and the Income Tax Law, and creates a uniform standard to determine whether an individual performing services for an employer is an employee of that employer.

This legislation would help the state reduce misclassification of workers.  A common example of misclassification is an employer classifying an employee as an independent contractor when the worker is truly an employee under the law. Some employers intentionally misclassify employees to avoid paying workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation and income taxes giving them an unfair pricing advantage and denying the worker just pay.

The bill’s sponsor cited 2010 estimates by then Attorney General Richard Cordray, which indicated that “there were over 90,000 misclassified workers in construction, home health care, trucking and other industries in Ohio.”  Sen. Skindell also pointed out that “Former Attorney General Cordray estimated that the misclassification of workers costs the state over $790 million in lost unemployment insurance taxes, workers’ compensation premiums and income tax revenues in a single year.”

Read the full text of SB 107 here.

Read the LSC bill analysis here.

Ohio will increase its minimum wage from $7.40 to $7.70 on January 1, 2012 to keep pace with the rising cost of living, as required by a state constitutional amendment approved by Ohio voters in 2006. Ohio’s minimum wage increase means an additional $624 per year in wages for a full-time minimum wage worker.

The National Employment Law Project and Policy Matters Ohio released a statement hailing the upcoming increase as an essential move to help working families increase spending at local businesses, deal with rising prices, and contribute more to move Ohio and the U.S. toward economic recovery.

The statement explained that a growing body of research shows that raising the minimum wage is an effective way to boost the incomes of low-paid workers without reducing employment. A groundbreaking 1994 study by David Card and Alan Krueger, President Obama’s nominee to head the Council of Economic Advisers, found that an increase in New Jersey’s minimum wage did not reduce employment among fast-food restaurants. These findings have been confirmed by 15 years of economic research, including a 2010 study published in the Review of Economics and Statistics that analyzed data from more than 500 counties and found that minimum wage increases did not cost jobs. Another recent study published in April 2011 in the journal Industrial Relations found that even during times of high unemployment, minimum wage increases did not lead to job loss.

You can read the full statement released by NELP and Policy Matters Ohio here.

Thousands of working Ohioans will continue to receive minimum wage protection. An amendment to the budget bill (HB 153) that would have expanded exemptions to Ohio’s minimum was removed from the omnibus amendment adopted by the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday evening.

A fact sheet issued on Monday by Policy Matters Ohio and the National Employment Law Project (NELP) found that the change would have expanded minimum wage exemptions, removing protection for certain homecare workers, agricultural workers, police and firefighters, directly contradicting the constitutional amendment passed by Ohio voters in 2006.

Thousands of Ohio workers currently covered by Ohio’s minimum wage will lose protection without Senate action. The budget bill (HB 153) as amended in the Senate expands the categories of workers exempted from the state minimum wage–in violation of the minimum wage Constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2006.

Policy Matters Ohio and the National Employment Law Project have issued a statement and a fact sheet on proposed changes. They found that major categories of workers will be affected by the proposed legislation, including:

Homecare workers. The federal minimum wage exemption for homecare workers, at 29 U.S.C. § 213(15), is broader than Ohio’s definition of employee under state law, at Ohio Rev. Code 4111.03(D)(b), which limits the state law exemption just to babysitters and live‐in homecare workers. Under this proposed legislation, then, all homecare workers in Ohio who fall within the broader federal exemption – including homecare workers who are not live‐in – would now lose state minimum wage coverage.

Certain agricultural workers. While Ohio’s definition of employee does not exclude agricultural workers, the federal minimum wage exemptions exclude some categories of agricultural workers from minimum wage coverage, at 29 U.S.C. § 213(6). Those workers would now be excluded from state minimum wage coverage under House Bill 153.

Police officers and firefighters. While Ohio’s definition of employee excludes police officers and firefighters, at Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.03(D)(3)(f), the FLSA does not exempt these workers from federal minimum wage coverage. Thus, these workers would now lose state minimum wage coverage under House Bill 153.

The proposed exemptions to state minimum wage coverage contained in the Senate budget bill directly conflict with the constitutional amendment passed by Ohio’s voters in 2006, and would impact potentially thousands of workers. If the measure is signed into law, it will likely lead to costly lawsuits and create uncertainty for employers and workers alike in Ohio.

Press Release

Fact Sheet

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