How Ohio’s new overtime law impacts pay for hourly workers

Ohioans could see a difference in their paychecks due to a new Ohio law.

State lawmakers passed Senate Bill 47 in March, changing the rules hourly workers have for when they can and cannot clock overtime. Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill into law on April 6.

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Under the new law, employees cannot get overtime pay for:

• Walking, riding or traveling to and from your workplace
• Activities that take place before or after your “principal” work hours
• Outside of work activities requiring “insubstantial or insignificant periods of time” such as checking emails in your car or listening to a voicemail

Jacob Worsham, a lawyer, told News Center 7′s Candace Price that if an activity is work related, employees should get paid for it.

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“If they’re going to make a lot of rules around it, there should be structures in place and protocol,” Worsham said.

There is a caveat to the new rules and that is that employees can get overtime if a supervisor directs them to do a task.

The new law will also change what happens if you sue your employer for overtime, requiring employees who want to participate in a class action lawsuit over wage theft to opt in with a signed statement.

The new law is set to go into effect on July 6.

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