/>iOn July 1, 2025, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill No. 96 into law. Although that law generally relates to setting Ohio’s operating budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, it also includes a “mini-WARN” provision which will require covered employers to provide notice to certain employees affected by plant closings and mass layoffs in Ohio starting September 29, 2025.
Ohio’s mini-WARN Act, set to be codified as Section 4113.31 of the Ohio Revised Code, mirrors the requirements of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) in most ways. In fact, the statute specifies that it does “not establish a different standard than that established by federal statutes and regulations.” However, the Ohio statute noticeably omits certain key language of the federal WARM Act with respect to defining a triggering event that requires notice to affected employees. Under the language in Ohio’s mini-WARN Act, employers are required to provide notice to affected employees if the employer:
- employs 100 or more employees at a single site of employment during any 30-day period; and
- lays off 50 or more employees at a single site of employment during any 30-day period.
Missing from this triggering language is the additional requirement in the federal WARN Act that for a mass layoff of 50 or more employees at a single site, the number of laid off employees also comprise at least 33 percent of the total number of employees at the single site. Under Ohio’s law, notice is required if 50 or more employees are laid off, regardless of the percentage those employees comprise at the impacted work site. This omission signals an intent that Ohio’s mini-WARN Act have a broader application than under the federal WARN Act.
An additional area where the Ohio law also differs from federal law is the additional notice requirements for local government officials. Under the federal WARN Act, in addition to the employees themselves and any representative of the employees, employers are required to provide notice to the unit of local government to which the employer pays the highest taxes the year prior to which the determination was made. The Ohio mini-WARN Act imposes a broader notice requirement to local government officials, requiring notice to the chief elected official of both the local municipality and county where the plant closing or mass layoff is to occur.
Ohio is the most recent state to enact its own mini-WARN Act. Now including Ohio, 15 states – California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Washington – have passed their own mini-WARN Acts. Like Ohio, many of these state mini-WARN Acts lower the threshold for a notice-triggering event and/or impose broader notice requirements than are provided for under the federal WARN Act. Some of them also lower the number of employees impacted for triggering notice requirements (for example, from 50 employees to 25 employees), although the Ohio statute does not do this. It is important that employers in states that have passed their own mini-WARN Acts comply with any broader requirements of the state mini-WARN Act in addition to the requirements of the federal WARN Act (if they apply). Employers are encouraged to contact an SPB attorney for assistance should they have any questions related to compliance with the requirements of any state mini-WARN law or the federal WARN Act.
