Ohio Employment Law Blog

For many workers in Ohio, facing racial discrimination and other types of civil rights violations on the job can be an all too common reality even when working for large employers. For example, the major retail chain, Target, recently agreed to a $3.7 million settlement after a lawsuit that alleged that its process of criminal background checks discriminated against African American and Latino applicants. The settlement is currently pending court approval.

Under the terms of the settlement, the retailer will give priority to hiring Latino and black applicants who had previously been rejected from employment due to a background check. The lawsuit claims that these rejections often related to offenses that were years old or were unrelated to the positions to which they applied. The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund said that the background check procedures harmed many qualified people looking for a good job, noting that these types of overly broad checks can limit opportunities for black and Latino workers in a way that amounts to racial discrimination.

The Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") limits an employer's ability to make disability-related inquiries or require medical examinations. During employment, employers "shall not require a medical examination and shall not make inquiries of an employee as to whether such employee is an individual with a disability or as to the nature and severity of the disability, unless such examination or inquiry is shown to be job-related and consistent with business necessity." Any employee can challenge a disability-related inquiry or medical examination that is not "job-related and consistent with business necessity."

For far too long the prevailing theory behind paying women less than men was that men had wives and children at home for whom they were the sole financial support. This provided employers with a rationalization for paying women less by assuming they were simply making "extra" money and not solely responsible for the support of the family.

Fortunately, a plethora of legislation beginning in 1963 changed all that. With the passing of the Equal Pay Act in 1963, employers could no longer substantiate paying women less for the same amount of work due to antiquated notions about the American family.

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employers pay an overtime premium to most employees for all hours worked in excess of 40 per workweek. This applies to all non-exempt employees, even if they are paid a salary, day-rate, piece-rate or commission. Thus, never assume that you are not entitled to overtime because you are not paid by the hour. The class of employees who are not entitled to overtime (i.e., non-exempt employees) is fairly narrow. And, employers that claim an employee is exempt has the burden to prove it.