On Monday, Ohio governor John Kasich signed into law Senate Bill 331, which will prohibit local governments from establishing a minimum wage that differs from the state minimum wage and limit the ability of local or state law to curtail an employer’s ability to “establish policies concerning hours and location of work, scheduling, and fringe benefits.”
SB 331 has caused quite a bit of controversy in its evolution through the legislature. When it was originally introduced, its purpose was to establish statewide regulation of “the sale of dogs from pet stores and dog retailers,” intended to “preempt any local ordinance,” such as those passed in Toledo and Grove City which limited the sources from which pet stores could purchase dogs. As it passed through the Senate and House, it gained additional provisions prohibiting persons from knowingly engaging in activities associated with “cockfighting, bearbaiting, or pitting an animal against another” and from “engaging in sexual conduct with an animal.”
Although the majority of the bill is concerned with regulating pet stores and other animal welfare issues, it also gained provisions establishing the right of the state to “facilitate the deployment of advanced wireless service through the state,” simultaneously abbreviating the right of municipal authority to impose a variety of requirements upon wireless facilities.
More relevant to the majority of Ohio employers, the bill also gained provisions relating to labor law within the state. First, it amends the Ohio Revised Code to specify that “No political subdivision shall establish a minimum wage rate different from the wage rate required” by state law. As no Ohio municipality has yet established a differing wage, this will not result in any changes to current local ordinances. Instead, it will block cities and counties from attempting such a change in the future—for example, the city of Cleveland, which planned to put a local minimum wage increase to a vote next May, will no longer be able to do so under state law.
SB 331 also adds a section to the Miscellaneous Labor Law section of the Revised Code which states that “unless expressly provided in state or federal law,” a variety of labor issues may be exclusively determined by an employer’s policy, or by an employer’s contract or agreement with employees. These issues include:
- The number of hours, the time, and the location that an employee is required to work or be on call for work
- The amount of notification an employee is entitled to receive for work schedule assignments or changes to work schedule assignments
- Whether an employer will provide additional hours of work to employees before hiring additional workers
- Whether an employer will provide employees with health, welfare, or retirement benefits
- Whether an employer will provide employees with leaves of absence; or with vacation, sick, separation, or holiday pay
This provision specifies that political subdivisions may adopt resolutions to limit the hours an employer operates, as established by preexisting case law and the Ohio Constitution.
As with the minimum wage provision, this section is unlikely to affect existing local ordinances. Rather, it will prevent local governments from passing ordinances entitling employees to accrue sick leave, as cities in Minnesota and Illinois recently have, or requiring employers to offer additional hours of work to existing employers before hiring new workers as a recent San Jose, California ordinance mandates.
Although some leaders of local government have expressed concern with these limitations on their local control, particularly as regards their ability to regulate wireless tower installations, others such as Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley said they would “welcome any help that the state could offer” to prevent ordinances such as the proposed Cleveland minimum wage increase from going through.