On December 19, 2025, Governor DeWine signed the E-Verify Workforce Integrity Act (Ohio General Assembly Substitute House Bill No. 246) which requires all construction contractors, subcontractors or labor brokers, excluding those who work on residential construction, to verify every new employee’s work eligibility through the federal E-Verify Program. The E-Verify Program is a program that helps an employer determine the eligibility of its employees to work in the United States. Contractors are required to keep records of the verification for the duration of the employee’s employment or for three years, whichever is longer. A contractor must terminate an employee’s employment if it receives notice of non-confirmation of an individual’s ability to work in the United States.
The Attorney General is given authority to investigate violations of the Act and to issue notices of violations where applicable. Contractors who receive notice of a violation may request a hearing before the Director of the Ohio Department of Commerce. The Act applies to all traditional construction contractors and subcontractors as well as what the Act calls labor brokers, which are essentially unions in the State of Ohio.
The Act applies to any construction project involving construction or renovation of a building, highway, bridge, utility or related infrastructure, but it does not include things such as manufactured homes, residential buildings, buildings or structures that are incidental to the use of the land on which it is located for agricultural purposes or a mobile home.
The new law requires the construction contractor, subcontractor or union to terminate an employee’s employment after receiving a notice of final non-confirmation from the E-Verify Program. This occurs when notices are received indicating that an employee’s eligibility cannot be confirmed eligible to work in the United States.
Enforcement authority lies with the Attorney General and the law indicates that the Attorney General may determine the amount of any monetary penalty to be assessed. If the Attorney General determines that it is likely that the contractor, subcontractor or labor broker committed two or more willful violations then the contractor, subcontractor or labor broker could be disqualified from bidding or participating in any future State contracts for up to two years. The law states that the fine for failing to use E-Verify is $250 per failure and the fine for failing to fire an employee after notice is $5,000 per failure. Fines for other misconduct can be as great as $25,000 per failure.
E-Verify is an internet-based program that helps employers verify newly hired employees’ work eligibility by comparing information from the I-9 Form against databases maintained by the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. An employer creates a case in the system for each new employee and provides the required information from the I-9 Form. The program responds to each case by either confirming the employee’s employment eligibility or indicating that further action is necessary to do so. If E-Verify cannot confirm an employee’s eligibility after receiving additional information or no information is provided, the employer is notified that the employee cannot be verified and cannot continue to work. Federal law, however, does not require an employer to fire an employee based on a final notice that the system could not confirm the employee’s work authorization. In summary, construction contractors, subcontractors and unions are required to confirm the identity and legal working status of every employee. The Act requires that employers cannot continue to employ an individual after receiving notice of non-eligibility for that individual from the E-Verify Program. This law goes into effect on March 20, 2026.
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