Unfortunately for employees, Ohio has no direct statute requiring an employer to immediately pay an employee in full upon being terminated. Rather, Ohio has a statute that required employers that pay employees on a semi-monthly basis to make full payment for wages earned on the first and fifteenth of each month.
Specifically, Ohio Revised Code §4113.15(A) required that every employer doing business in Ohio
“Shall, on or before the first day of each month, pay all its employees the wages earned by them during the first half of the preceding month ending with the fifteenth day thereof, and shall, on or before the fifteenth day of each month, pay such employees the wages earned by them during the last half of the preceding calendar month.”
Sometimes an employee is fired before payday. In that instance, Ohio law requires that the employee is entitled to receive his/her pay “at any time thereafter upon demand upon the proper paymaster at the place where such wages are usually paid and where such pay is due.”
The failure of an employer to follow this law is punishable as a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries a potential sentence of 6 months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine plus restitution. Section (B) of this statute provides that where an employer fails to make a wage payment within 30 days of the normal payday, or where there is no regular payday, within 60 days after demand for payment, the employer is liable to what is known as liquidated damages. These are damages the law “presumes” the employee suffered and is equal to 6% of the amount of the unpaid claim or two hundred dollars or whichever is greater. The statute also provides payment for fringe benefits upon termination.
The attorneys of Mowery Youell & Galeano, Ltd. have dealt with this very issue and have help terminated employees obtain what they are owed. We have successfully brought other types of claims to successfully obtain monies owed to terminated employees.
There may be claims such as “Breach of Contract” where there was a compensation agreement between employee/employer governing the time and manner in which an employee is entitled to his/her final paycheck. Additionally, Mowery Youell & Galeano, Ltd. has successfully brought claims against employers including unjust enrichment (where a company unlawfully benefits from an employee’s work but has not compensated the employee for it) and conversion (which is a claim based on the unlawful withholding of another’s property).
If you have been terminated and have not received the pay you are entitled to receive contact the attorneys at Mowery Youell & Galeano, Ltd. and using our experience we can help obtain the results you deserve.
BY: Nicholas W. Yaeger