You could be in line to get unclaimed funds -- Here’s why and how to check

More than 4,200 Ohioans are in line to receive money from a pot of more than $1.7 million in unclaimed funds owed to workers throughout the state.

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Ironically, many employees have no idea that the U.S. Labor Department routinely investigates complaints about issues such as the improper calculation of overtime. Often, by the time an investigation ends, workers have moved on to other jobs or out of the workforce altogether.

“We want the workers to get these wages,” Karla Falcon, labor department spokeswoman told News Center 7. “They have worked for [their wages] and they’ve earned [their wages].”

Nationally, more than 222,000 workers are owed more than $160 million, according to the labor department.

And more than 4,200 of those workers are in Ohio.

Because workers often have no idea there is money for them, waiting to be claimed, the labor department is asking people to go to the department’s website and search by their own name and the past employer’s name or organization to see there is unclaimed cash to be had.

“Sometimes there’s a lot of employees involved in these investigations and we don’t have the correct address for them. So they may not be aware of the fact that they were involved in the investigation. And there’s a wages that are owed to them.,” Falcon said.

“This is money that belongs to the workers,” she said.

Be aware there is a time limit to search for unclaimed cash.

The labor department can only hold onto the money for three years before it has to be turned over to the U.S. Treasury, according to federal law.

You can check to see if you’re on the list for unclaimed cash right now by visiting the WHIO.com web links page.

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