Workforce Bulletin

Columbus has joined Toledo, Cincinnati, and a number of states and locales around the country, in banning employers from asking job applicants about their salary history.

Effective March 1, 2024, covered employers in Ohio’s capital will be prohibited from:

• inquiring about an applicant’s salary history,
• screening applicants based on their salary history,
• relying solely on salary history when deciding whether to offer an applicant employment or determining their compensation, and
• retaliating against applicants for not disclosing their salary history.

Salary History

Currently, neither the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) nor the Equal Pay Act (EPA) prohibit employers from screening applicants based on prior salary, requesting an applicant’s salary history, or conditioning an applicant’s employment on providing their salary history. However, salary history bans, which are intended to eliminate the perpetuation of discriminatory pay disparities, have become increasingly common both at the state and local level. As of April 2023, more than 40 states and localities have adopted some form a salary history ban.

As featured in #WorkforceWednesday:  This week, we look at the trend of “quiet quitting” and the legal and technology considerations employers should weigh when navigating the issue.

work·week | \ ˈwərk-ˌwēk \

noun

Perhaps one of the most important terms of art under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), an employer’s designated workweek impacts nearly every aspect of an employee’s pay – from minimum wage and overtime to application of most exemptions. Let’s break down this concept.

What is a workweek?

The FLSA regulations define workweek as “a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours - seven consecutive 24-hour periods.” Contrary to popular belief, a workweek need not coincide with a calendar week, nor must it align with an employer’s hours of operation. Instead, it can begin on any day and at any hour of the day. However, the key is that once a workweek is determined, it must remain fixed regardless of the employees’ hours worked with limited exception.

Earlier this month, Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill (SB) 47, which formally adopted sections of the Portal-to-Portal Act (Portal Act) amendments to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), exempting employers from paying overtime under certain circumstances. SB 47 also eliminates so-called “hybrid” collective/class actions for Ohio plaintiffs by adopting the FLSA’s “opt-in” requirement for individuals seeking to join a wage and hour lawsuit on Ohio state law claims for failure to pay overtime. The law takes effect on July 6, 2022.

Portal-to-Portal Act

Ohio’s minimum wage will increase to $9.30 per hour for non-tipped employees and $4.65 per hour for tipped employees, effective January 1, 2022.  This new minimum wage will apply to employees of businesses with annual gross receipts of more than $342,000 per year.

For employees at smaller companies with annual gross receipts of $342,000 or less per year, and for 14- and 15-year-olds, the minimum wage continues to be the federal rate of $7.25 per hour.

As a reminder, employers should update their minimum wage and overtime poster, which should be posted in a location that is easily ...