Ohio Labor Law Posters 2025: Compliance Guidance

Ohio Labor Law Posters: An Intro

Labor law posters are an essential part of maintaining compliance with state and federal labor laws in Ohio. These posters serve as a constant reminder to employees of their rights and responsibilities under the law, as well as the obligations of their employer. Failing to display updated labor law posters can lead to penalties and fines, which makes it imperative for Ohio businesses to ensure that they are always up to date.
Regarding legal requirements, all Ohio employers are required by law to prominently display state and federal labor law posters in a place where employees can easily see them. Posters must be displayed in a location where employees congregate, such as a break room or cafeteria. These posters should be posted in both English and Spanish in order to ensure that all employees can read them and understand their rights.
Employers should take special care to stay updated because labor laws can change frequently. Every year , there are new state and federal laws that affect labor law posters in Ohio. Additionally, while some new laws incorporated into these posters may not go into effect until 2025, other laws could be introduced and go into effect before 2025. While the dates of new laws may vary and their effect on the state’s labor law poster requirements may be different, one thing remains the same – labor law posters are important components of workplace compliance.
In summary, labor law posters are an essential aspect of Ohio labor laws. Employers are required by law to post current, accurate labor law posters in a prominent location at their place of business, and failure to do so can lead to serious penalties and fines. In addition to avoiding these penalties, displaying current labor law posters is a best practice for workplace compliance.

Updates for the Year 2025

Looking ahead to Ohio labor law posters for 2025, employers should be aware of several key updates. Increased Minimum Wage. On January 1, 2025, Ohio employers must comply with a minimum wage of $9.10 per hour for non-tipped employees and $4.60 per hour for tipped employees. Under the state constitution, employers must adjust the minimum wage each year based on an inflation rate. Applied to the current rate, that results in a 10-cent bump for 2025. Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (PFMLA). Beginning in 2025, eligibility for job and benefit protection will expand for employees who need to take leave under the PFMLA. Existing law also protects employees from retaliatory action after taking leave. Paid Sick leave. In 2025, employees will have the right to use up to 40 hours of paid sick leave in a calendar year. Salary Transparency. As of January 1, 2025, employers with 25 or more employees must disclose salary ranges and benefits for each position upon submitting a job posting. Employers must also disclose the wage or wage range after a position is given a conditional offer of employment. Additional requirements. Employers must post all updated Ohio labor law posters in a conspicuous place in each and every workplace within their organization and be prepared to answer any employee questions about these law changes. Models with this information are available now to prepare employers to provide the required employee notifications.

Required Ohio Labor Law Posters

In 2025, Ohio employers will be required to display the following nine (9) mandatory federal, state and supplemental labor law posters:
Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law
This notice must be displayed to inform employees that they are protected from unlawful employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.
Employee Rights – Employee Polygraph Protection Act
This notice informs employees that they are protected under the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, which restricts the use of lie detector tests by most private employers.
Employment Rights Under USERRA
This notice informs employees of their rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 concerning members of the uniformed services returning from military service.
Your Rights Under Section 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
This notice informs employees of their rights under Section 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 concerning employment discrimination protections for persons with disabilities.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
In 2025, Ohio employers with 20 or more employees must display this notice to inform employees of their rights under the consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA).
Worker’s Compensation
In 2025, Ohio employers must post a summary of the Ohio Workers’ Compensation Act and the rights and responsibilities the act provides to both employers and workers under the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC).

Where to Display Labor Law Posters

For the purposes of meeting Ohio labor law poster requirements, the safest place to display your posters is in a break room, lunch room, cafeteria, or any other area commonly frequented by employees, where they can easily be noticed. If you are like most employers, however, there will be very few areas in your business that meet this requirement.
If you have a reception desk, employee service area, or an outfitting area for loading and unloading employee equipment, any of these would work. Basically, any area an employee might go to stroll past a bulletin board or wall-mounted notice board should work.
It is important, however, that your Ohio labor law posters and mandatory labor law posters for all other states where you have employees be displayed in the same general area. For example, if you have employees in five states like Ohio, California, Florida, Texas, and Georgia, all five posters must be displayed in the same area, so that all employees have the same opportunity to view the information on each poster.
If there is a break room in your warehouse or factory, any area within this space where the employee may walk is a good choice. Space constraints may limit your options, but the Federal Department of Labor recommends that you display your labor law posters in a physical location as opposed to electronically or via computer.
The Federal Department of Labor does not specify the size of Ohio labor law posters, but some states do, like Minnesota. When it comes to Ohio labor law posters, however, there are no physical size requirements.
While there are no physical size requirements, in early 2017 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in NLRB v. Murphy Oil America, Inc., that employers covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) could prohibit employees from using company email systems for nonbusiness use, including use related to their union organizing activities. While the Court’s ruling in Murphy Oil does not specifically address the requirement to post Ohio labor law posters, the ruling does not mean that electronic posting is now encouraged.
Stick with best practices and physical posting of your Ohio labor law posters, and where practical, display and distribute labor law postings electronically as well.
In the case of a labor law poster that covers multiple states (and there are many), consider displaying a color-coded one on a bulletin board or internal website, where each poster is displayed using its own color.

What Happens if You Don’t Comply

In addition to the mounting fines and penalties resulting from non-compliance with labor laws and wage and hour requirements, employers also need to keep in mind the list of state and federal defendants who have become public examples of non-compliance. The decision of whether to hire a labor law poster service should be based on the fact that the fines associated with this labor law requirement, where they exist, are not business impacting. The better reason for using a labor law poster service is because compliance is easy and puts the employer in the best position to avoid audits.
Labor law non-compliance can have unanticipated impact on your business. Employees and former employees know that labor law requirements exist, and they see compliance as the employer’s obligation. If the company fails to show up on this basic labor law requirement, how long until someone questions the company’s other compliance procedures? Every company should be prepared to answer why it isn’t following the big and recognizable labor law requirements.
If an employee questions why the company does not have labor law posters, or if a former employee learns that there are no labor law posters in the break-room, you can bet it will make its way to your competitors that pay attention to these requirements. You can bet that any lawsuit related to overtime or discrimination alleges that your company is non-compliant with labor law requirements.
Failure to comply with wage and hour requirements can lead to significant damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act, including liability for unpaid overtime, liquidated damages, failure to keep good time records, and attorney fees . A Tennessee Bank had a class action overtime settlement with about 1,500 employees at a cost of $5.8 million. A Washington State Ad Agency reached a settlement last month in which all it got was a lawsuit from the plaintiffs’ attorney, but the $6.4 million paid by the insurer makes it more difficult to obtain insurance in the future. McKenzie v. Fedex Freight East (superseded by agreement), 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94894 (W.D. Tenn. July 15, 2014).
Federal law and the laws of many states require employers to maintain accurate records regarding hours worked and wages earned. Attorneys generally work for a percentage of what they recover for the plaintiff, and wage and hour claims have been very profitable for attorneys in recent years, particularly in California and New York. That makes it profitable for plaintiffs to file claims in other states, and to use the fear of litigation regardless of the potential for recovery. Whether or not the lawsuit is meritorious, the potential damages often mean the company will have to settle quickly to avoid litigation costs.
The damages available under federal and state wage and hour laws include additional wages (double damages in most states), liquidated damages, and attorney fees. The cases tend to settle within weeks after the lawsuit is filed to avoid the time and expense of discovery, and at a level that exceeds easily to imagine number. Most employers do not appreciate the severity of the damages they face until they call and ask how to get out from under a wage hour lawsuit.

How to Keep Up With Labor Changes

Effective Strategies for Staying Abreast of Labor Law Changes in the State of Ohio
Staying updated on all of the changes in Ohio Labor Law posters is an arduous task. As an employer, you have a multitude of responsibilities on your plate, and keeping track of everything going on can seem impossible. Here are some suggestions to keep you up to date:
Signing Up for Newsletters:
A multitude of websites offer email newsletters that include important updates on the current status of labor law changes in the State of Ohio. These newsletters are delivered directly to your online inbox, whenever it is convenient for you to read them.
Joining Trade Associations:
Joining trade associations relevant to your industry is an excellent way to keep abreast of relevant updates to all laws and regulations pertinent to your business. These associations include skilled professionals with decades of experience in your field, all of whom are invested in helping you succeed.
Professional Employment Management Companies:
Professional employment management companies, or PEOs can be services that help you stay up to date on all pertinent business matters. These companies employ dozens of experts with a wide range of specialties, each of whom has a different area of expertise to make sure that no matter what happens, you’ll always be protected by the very best.

Using an Outside Poster Service

When it comes to ensuring compliance with labor law requirements, maintaining up-to-date posters is a critical element of the employer’s responsibility. Yet, many Ohio employers choose not to hang all of the required state and federal posters in their workplace because they do not want to (or cannot) allocate time, resources and space to keep up with poster requirements. For these employers, utilizing third-party services is the ideal solution.
Ohio employers can purchase all of the required Ohio and federal labor law posters through online third-party services. These companies make it their sole priority to stay up to date on all poster requirements , including changes in laws that can trigger new poster requirements. Using third-party services alleviates the work burden for the employer. Simply order the appropriate posters, and have them send you the most cost-effective posting method to satisfy the requirements for each posting location.
Due to the rapidly changing employment laws at both the state and federal level, it is necessary to keep up to date on whether additional postings are required. During the past 5 years, there have been significant federal law changes that triggered new federal labor law posters. In addition, there have been similar state law changes that require certain state postings in 2025. Online poster services can provide you with an all-in-one capabilities and handle it for you.