Ohio Final Paycheck Demand Letter

It is a written demand a departed Ohio employee sends a former employer to collect final wages that were not paid by the payday Ohio law sets. The letter names the wages owed, the separation date, and the regular payday the employer missed under Ohio Revised Code Section 4113.15, and it demands payment by a set date. It documents that you asked for your wages before you pursue a civil action, and it can note that liquidated damages of the greater of six per cent of the unpaid wages or two hundred dollars can apply once pay is thirty days late.

Ohio does not split the deadline by whether you were fired or quit. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 4113.15(A) an employer pays on a semimonthly schedule, so wages earned in the first half of a month are due on or before the first day of the following month and wages earned in the last half are due on or before the fifteenth of the following month. Your final wages are due on the next regular payday for your last pay period. The outer marker is thirty days beyond that regularly scheduled payday, after which a penalty attaches, so once your payday passes with no payment a demand letter is the usual next step.

Under Ohio Revised Code Section 4113.15(B), where wages remain unpaid for thirty days beyond the regularly scheduled payday and there is no bona fide contest or dispute, the employer owes, as liquidated damages, an amount equal to six per cent of the amount of the claim still unpaid or two hundred dollars, whichever is greater. Ohio does not add a continuing daily wage; the penalty is the greater of the six per cent figure or the flat two hundred dollars. You can reserve this penalty in your Ohio demand letter.

Only if your employer agreement or policy provides for it. Ohio has no independent statute that forces payout of accrued unused vacation. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 4113.15(D)(2), vacation, separation, and holiday pay are fringe benefits, and Section 4113.15(C) makes the employer a trustee of the funds its agreement requires to be paid. So an Ohio final paycheck must include accrued vacation when the employer policy or contract promises it, and your demand letter should attach or quote that policy.

Ohio limits deductions. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 4113.19, an employer may not, without an express contract with the employee, deduct or retain wages for wares, tools, or machinery destroyed or damaged. A wage under Ohio Revised Code Section 4113.15(D)(1) is the net amount payable less taxes withheld and any employee-authorized deduction, so deductions from a final paycheck generally have to be required by law or authorized. You can dispute any deduction that lacks an express contract or authorization in your Ohio demand letter.

Ohio has no broad administrative wage-claim board that adjudicates final-pay disputes. If your Ohio employer ignores your demand, you recover unpaid final wages through a civil action, and a dispute of $6,000 or less can go to small claims court in the municipal or county court. Ohio wage and hour matters are administered by the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Industrial Compliance, Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration. Sending a demand letter first often resolves the dispute and, if it does not, it becomes evidence that you tried to collect.

For a wage claim under Section 34a of Article II of the Ohio Constitution, which covers minimum-wage and implementing law, Ohio Revised Code Section 4111.14(K) allows an action within three years of the violation, or of when a continuing violation ceased, or within one year after notification of final state disposition, whichever is later. Deadlines turn on the facts and on the exact nature of your claim, so sending your demand letter and acting promptly is the practical course rather than waiting near any limit.