What do you need to know to hire in Ohio?
A flat 2.75% state income tax, a separate municipal tax in most cities, and the $11 state wage floor. Each Ohio guide below takes one layer of state rule.
· Ohio, United States guide
Illustration · Columbus, Ohio
Ohio taxes nonbusiness income at a flat 2.75%, low by national standards. The catch is the city layer: most Ohio municipalities levy their own income tax on top, Columbus at 2.5% and the common band running 1% to 3%.
The federal floor is identical to every other state: FLSA, FICA, FUTA and FMLA set the baseline. Everything Ohio adds on top, the municipal tax, the $11 wage floor, the unemployment schedule, is what these guides cover.
Ohio also enacted a mini-WARN in 2025 (ORC 4113.31), so a larger employer now owes layoff notice the state never required before. This page is the map; each guide is the detail.
What do you need to know to hire in Ohio?
Ohio runs on the federal employment floor plus a low flat state income tax and a city tax most employers forget. Nonbusiness income is taxed at a flat 2.75%, the state minimum is $11 an hour, and overtime follows the 40-hour federal week.
Where Ohio gets specific is the municipal income tax, the unemployment schedule, and a mini-WARN that took effect in 2025. Each guide below takes one of those layers.
Sienna runs payroll for a 12-person team and just approved her first Ohio hire. The federal stack she already knows still applies: Social Security at 6.2% each side to $184,500, FUTA, and FMLA once the company passes 50 employees. Ohio layers a flat state income tax, a separate municipal income tax, its own unemployment tax, and a mini-WARN on top.
Start from the United States overview for the federal baseline. This page is the Ohio-specific layer, and the four guides below break it into the questions an employer actually asks before a first hire.
What does an employer actually pay in Ohio?
The Ohio-specific cost is state income tax withholding, the municipal income tax, and unemployment insurance, on top of the federal pass-through. The state rate is flat; the city rate depends on where the employee lives and works.
Unemployment insurance runs on a $9,500 taxable wage base. A new employer starts at 2.85%, and experience-rated accounts land between 0.55% and 10.25%.
State income tax: a flat 2.75% on nonbusiness income. Municipal income tax: most cities add their own, Columbus at 2.5%, with the common band 1% to 3%. Minimum wage: $11 an hour, with $5.50 cash for tipped roles. Overtime: time and a half after 40 hours a week, no daily rule.
Unemployment insurance: a $9,500 wage base, 2.85% for a new employer, 0.55% to 10.25% once experience-rated. Final pay: the next regular payday for the period earned, in any case within 15 days, on a quit or a discharge alike.
Sources: Ohio Department of Taxation, income tax rates and Ohio JFS, 2026 contribution rates.
The figures above are the headline. The detail, from withholding setup to the municipal filing rhythm, the SUTA cadence, and the exempt-salary threshold, sits in the Ohio tax and unemployment guide and the wage and overtime guide.
The Ohio guides, one layer at a time
Four Ohio guides are live, one per layer of state rule. Each answers the questions an employer asks before the first hire, with the statutory numbers pulled from the same Ohio source set.
State income tax & unemployment insurance
The flat 2.75% state rate, the municipal tax that sits on top, the $9,500 SUTA wage base, and the quarterly filing rhythm.
Wage, overtime & meal break law
The $11 state floor, the 40-hour overtime week, the tip credit, and why Ohio mandates no adult meal break.
Paid family & sick leave
No state programme, what federal FMLA covers at 50+ employees, and the pregnancy accommodation rules that still apply.
Termination & at-will exceptions
The public-policy exception, the new Ohio mini-WARN under ORC 4113.31, and the federal WARN math on a mass layoff.
The Ohio worker-classification guide, the state's test for employee versus contractor, is the next one we're building. Need it sooner? Tell us and we'll move it up the queue.
How does Ohio compare to its neighbours?
Ohio is the rare state where the city tax matters as much as the state rate. The federal floor is identical across the region; the state and local layer is not.
Cross a state line and the math changes. Indiana also lets counties levy a local income tax, but its state rate sits below Ohio's flat 2.75%. Kentucky runs a flat state tax with its own local occupational taxes. Michigan taxes income at a flat rate and only a handful of its cities add a municipal tax on top.
If you're hiring across the region, read each state's guides before you set payroll. The structure is the same everywhere; the state rate, the local tax, the SUTA base, and the termination rules are not.
How does Teamed hire in Ohio for you?
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Ohio for $599 per employee per month, flat, with zero FX mark-up in any currency. Payroll, the state and municipal withholding, the unemployment registration, and the federal stack run on one platform.
There's no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Real HR and legal experts handle your Ohio hires, from the first offer letter to a contested termination. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue, who knows which city tax applies and how the new mini-WARN notice works. There's no setup fee and no exit fee, the platform tracks every federal and state trigger in real time, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll, and entity setup live on one platform. An Ohio contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate from EOR to your own US entity without re-onboarding. Run the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips. EOR is the right model for a first Ohio hire, until it isn't.
Ohio reads as the low-tax state: a flat 2.75% rate, strong at-will, a clean wage code. The catch is the city tax stacked on top and a mini-WARN the state only enacted in 2025. These guides exist so the first Ohio hire never becomes the first Ohio filing.
Ohio looks like the low-tax state to hire in. A flat 2.75% rate, at-will, an $11 wage floor.
The catch sits in the cities. Most levy their own income tax on top, and a 2025 mini-WARN now governs the bigger layoffs.
Read the right guide before the first hire, not after the first notice.
