Employers Misclassifying Workers as Independent Contractors: A Six-Pack of Employee Misclassification Laws

The National Law Review
Friday, January 24, 2020

… Gov. Murphy signed 6 new laws that address the misclassification issue and provide for significant liabilities for those employers found to have misclassified workers. …

A 5838 – Stop Orders

Under this law, the New Jersey Department of Labor (“DOL”) is now empowered to issue stop-work orders against any employer who is found to be a violation of “any State, wage, benefit and tax law.” This would include failure to pay wages required by law and misclassification of a worker as an independent contractor. The stop-work order would require the cessation of all business operations at the place where the violation exists. …

A 5839 – Additional Penalties

… New penalties are now available against employers who misclassify workers. The new law provides an administrative “misclassification penalty” of up to $250 for each misclassified employee for first violations, and up to $1,000 per employee for each subsequent violation. In addition, a penalty will be paid to the misclassified worker of “not more than 5 percent of the worker’s gross earnings over the past twelve months from the employer who failed to properly classify them.”

A 5840 – Joint Liability

… Gov. Murphy amended the Wage Theft Act so that there is also joint and several liability when the state employment tax laws are violated. So, if you use contract employees and your contractor improperly classifies its workers as independent contractors, you could be liable for all the fines, penalties, and damages resulting from this misclassification.

A 5843 – Notice Posting

This law requires employers to post in the workplace a notice of the prohibition against misclassifying workers, the benefits and protections available to employees and the remedies available under all of the new laws. The DOL is tasked with developing and issuing a form of notice for employers. The law also … provides a private cause of action for employees who are retaliated against. Finally, any employer who violates any part of this law shall be guilty of a disorderly person’s offense and pay fines between $100 and $1,000. …

S 4226 – DOL Website Posting

This law permits the DOL to post on its website the name of any person who is found to be in violation of any state wage, benefit, or tax law, and who has had a final order issued against them by the DOL Commissioner. …

S 4228 – Tax Data Sharing

This law permits the State Division of Taxation to share with the DOL the following information (which was previously deemed confidential): tax information statements, reports, audit files, returns, or reports of any investigation for the purpose of labor market research or assisting in investigations pursuant to any state wage, benefit or tax law.

(Read More)

STUDY: Should Prevailing Wages Prevail? Reexamining the Effect of Prevailing Wage Laws on Affordable Housing Construction Costs

Matt Hinkel, Michigan State University, Dale Belman, Ph.D., Michigan State University (ICERES, Institute for Construction Economic Research)

A current policy debate surrounding state prevailing wage laws is centered on whether they are costly to state governments and taxpayers. The authors contribute to this debate by extending and utilizing data from a 2017 prevailing wage study to replicate and investigate a controversial paper often cited in this debate. The authors examine the relationship between California’s prevailing wage law and the costs of building affordable housing, and they do so by going beyond the 2017 study’s estimates and estimating a carefully-constructed two-stage model. The authors find no causal effect of prevailing wages on affordable housing construction costs, contradicting previous literature. Further, in a supplemental analysis, the authors examine and highlight key methodological deficiencies present in a prior study. This timely research is designed to contribute to the current prevailing wage debate, which has important implications for researchers, practitioners, and legislators.

(PDF Copy of Full Study)

(Visit the ICERES Website)

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STUDY: Prevailing Wage Laws Boost Homeownership for Construction Workers

February 19, 2020
By: Frank Manzo IV, Jill Gagstad, Robert Bruno, Ph.D.

Prevailing Wage and the American Dream: Impacts on Homeownership, Housing Wealth, and Property Tax Revenues

This study examines links between prevailing wage laws and homeownership, housing wealth, and property tax revenues for … workers and their communities. …

State prevailing wage laws promote the hiring, development, and retention of skilled workers by encouraging investment in apprenticeship programs. Prevailing wage rates often include a cents-perhour-worked contribution into workforce training institutions. As a result, apprenticeship training is 6 to 8 percent higher in states with prevailing wage laws, boosting worksite productivity by an average of at least 11 percent (Bilginsoy, 2003; Duncan & Lantsberg, 2015). Since state prevailing wage laws enhance productivity and labor costs are a small percentage of total costs in construction, the preponderance of the peer-reviewed research has concluded that state prevailing wage laws have no impact on total project costs (Duncan & Ormiston, 2017).

…despite a robust economic literature on apprenticeship training, safety, worker earnings, and costs, little research has been conducted showing the effect of state prevailing wage laws on construction worker homeownership.

This report, conducted jointly by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) and Project for Middle Class Renewal (PMCR) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, fills that void in the economic research, assessing the impact of state prevailing wage laws on the homeownership rate of skilled construction workers. The impact of state prevailing wage laws on the home values of blue-collar construction workers is also analyzed, determining whether the policy allows construction workers to build household wealth and positively contribute to their communities through property tax revenues.

(PDF Copy of Full Report)

(Visit the ILEPI Website)

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IL: Attorney General Raoul Convenes First Meeting Of Worker Protection Task Force

1/23/20

Chicago, IL (WorkersCompensation.com) – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today convened the first meeting of a task force that will facilitate collaboration between the Attorney General’s office, county prosecutors and state agencies in order to better protect workers’ rights and law-abiding businesses in Illinois.

The Worker Protection Unit Task Force was created under Senate Bill (SB) 161, which was initiated by Attorney General Raoul and signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker. The new law became effective on Jan. 1, 2020. The task force will bring together the state’s leading regulatory agencies that impact workers, law enforcement and worker protection advocates in order to better combat wage payment violations and unfair labor practices. …

… The new law established a Worker Protection Unit Task Force to facilitate information sharing and collaboration between the Attorney General’s office, local prosecutors, the Illinois Department of Labor, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Illinois Department of Employment Security and the Workers’ Compensation Commission. …

In addition to establishing the Worker Protection Unit Task Force, Senate Bill 161 codified the Worker Protection Unit within the Attorney General’s office to enforce violations of worker protection laws. The law also gives the Attorney General clear legal authority to investigate and bring enforcement actions against employers that commit wage theft and other workplace rights violations.

(Read More)

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City officials: Getting tax breaks on your project? Pay prevailing wage (MO)

February 07, 2020

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson has signed an ordinance guaranteeing a prevailing wage for workers on all projects in that receive City of St. Louis incentives.

Krewson says the idea is to avoid developers who get tax breaks and then try to hire workers on the cheap.

“We want to make sure if the city is investing in a project, that the workers are treated fairly and the contractors are treated fairly,” Krewson told KMOX. …

“This is very important to our construction workers on city tax incentivized projects — they’ll be getting a fair wage and benefits on any of these projects,” said Alderwoman Sarah Martin, who sponsored the ordinance.

(Read More)

Fair Contracting Foundation of Minnesota

January 2020 Newsletter

Trades Women Build Nations: Epic Movement in the Making

The next generation of building trades members came to Minneapolis in October. To organize, to learn, but most importantly, to celebrate being in the trades.

The 9th National Trades Women Build Nations Conference solidified itself as the North America’s Building Trades Union’s (NABTU’s) largest annual gathering. More than 2,700 women from across North America attended, surpassing last year’s total. Equally impressive is that the attendees paid their own way.

“The people in leadership who attended were very surprised at the pride women have in being union trades workers. They couldn’t believe the energy of the conference as a whole,” said Vicki O’Leary, chairwoman of the NABTU committee. “More general presidents taking a role is exactly what we need to keep women’s membership growing.”

Local Minnesota unions and their leadership made a strong contribution to the success of the conference according to Jessica Looman, executive director of the Minnesota Building Trades. “The conference was very well supported by the locals. One thing really exciting to see was local union leadership really embrace the conference not just by asking their members to attend but by encouraging them to be leaders,” she said.

(PDF Copy of January 2020 Newsletter)

(Visit FCFMN’s Resources Page)

Wage theft: An underreported crime

Catholic News Service |Mark Pattison
February 21, 2020

A rising tide lifts all boats, according to the popular economic adage.

But what if the reverse also is true? What happens when wages are depressed, and illegally so?

The Catholic Labor Network, based in Washington, is testing that theory right now through its Mid-Atlantic Construction Wage Theft Project. It has sent a man to construction sites in Maryland and the District of Columbia to talk to workers to learn who hired them and how much they’re getting paid.

Ernesto Galeas, who has gone to the job sites, said a growing number of builders are going through labor brokers to obtain workers. The brokers get their fee – and, according to Galeas, the workers get about $10 an hour with no overtime, no Social Security, no worker’s compensation and no health insurance. …

In a February phone interview with Catholic News Service, Galeas said: “In every job that I visit, most of them have labor brokers in drywall, carpentry, siding, plumbing, electricians. I would say that of 10 jobs, eight of them are under labor brokers.”
While labor brokers were more common in new-home construction, it has spread to commercial development, he added. …

The attorney general’s office in the District of Columbia levied fines this winter totaling roughly $3.25 million against three firms found to have violated the city’s wage-theft law. Some of that money will go to workers as back pay. Two of the three companies specialize in drywall hanging and electrical work.

D.C.’s Workplace Fraud Act, which applies to the construction industry, requires companies to classify most workers as employees. Those who violate the law can face significant fines. Maryland has a similar bill, hence the Catholic Labor Network’s focus there with its wage-theft initiative. …

California passed the Private Attorneys General Act, which allows workers to stand in the shoes of their state’s labor department and seek civil penalties for wage theft; they also generate millions in new revenue for state enforcement agencies, expanding their capacity to root out wage theft. Such legislation also has been proposed in New York, Oregon, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont and Washington. …

A 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute found wage theft “causes many families to fall below the poverty line, and it increases workers’ reliance on public assistance, costing taxpayers money. Lost wages can hurt state and local economies, and it hurts other workers in affected industries by putting downward pressure on wages.”

In examining the 10 most populous states, which hold a bit more than half the U.S. population, wage theft comes to more than $8 billion a year. “If the findings for these states are representative for the rest of the country, they suggest that the total wages stolen from workers due to minimum wage violations exceeds $15 billion each year,” the report said.

Just how much is that? David Cooper, a senior analyst at the Economic Policy Institute and co-author of the report, told CNS that “when you look at the amount of wage theft that takes place, it’s significantly more than the value of property theft.” The report quotes FBI statistics from 2015 that show the combined value of money and property stolen in robberies, burglaries, larceny and motor vehicle theft in the United States was $12.7 billion.

“The magnitude,” Cooper said, “is a lot larger than people think.”

(Read More)

Illinois law promoting diversity in construction set to take effect (IL)

Posted by Adam Redling
December 30, 2019

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed Illinois Works Jobs Program legislation Dec. 10 to strengthen a pillar of the state’s Rebuild Illinois initiative and increase diversity in apprenticeships for construction and the building trades. Senate Bill 177 takes effect Jan. 1, 2020.

Rebuild Illinois is a $45 billion capital program designed to improve the state’s infrastructure and provide resources to those in the building profession.

The Illinois Works Jobs Program will help ensure that Illinois residents from all communities not only benefit from capital projects, but also have access to careers in the construction industry and building trades.

The law encompasses a $25 million investment and works through community-based organizations. These organizations will help recruit new apprentices to work on construction projects and sets strong apprentice participation goals of 10 percent on public works projects. Through this pre-apprenticeship program, bid credit program and review panel, the new law is designed to help ensure the Illinois Works Jobs Program can build and maintain a diverse workforce on Rebuild Illinois projects.

“Rebuild Illinois is the largest, most robust capital plan in state history. We’re working with our partners to make sure every community in the state benefits from these good jobs-especially those who have been left out for far too long,” Pritzker says. “We’re putting Illinois’ government back on the side of working families, designing a state that is economically prosperous not just for the few, but for every Illinoisan, no matter the color of their skin or their ZIP code.”

(Read More)

Power Design to Pay $2.75 Million to Resolve Wage Theft Lawsuit (DC)

D.C. Office of the Attorney General alleges national electrical contracting company misclassified more than 500 workers as independent contractors. This settlement is OAG’s largest recovery to date in a wage enforcement action.

January 23, 2020

Attorney General Karl A. Racine recently announced that Power Design, Inc., a national electrical contractor headquartered in St. Petersburg, Fla., will be required to pay $2.75 million to workers and the District as part of a settlement in a wage theft and worker misclassification case. The settlement with the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) resolves a 2018 lawsuit against Power Design and two subcontractors that staffed its worksites for allegedly misclassifying more than 500 electrical workers as independent contractors instead of employees to cut labor costs. OAG also alleged that Power Design cheated workers out of wages and benefits and failed to pay District unemployment insurance taxes.

Under the terms of the settlement, Power Design will be required to: …

  • Pay $50,000 to support apprenticeships, job training, or workforce development opportunities to District residents.
  • Implement new policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the District’s minimum wage, overtime, paid sick leave, and worker misclassification laws.

(Read More)

Press Release: AG Racine Announces Two District Employers Must Pay Nearly $500K In Unpaid Wages To Workers And Penalties (DC)

News Release – DC Office of the Attorney General
Jan. 2, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine today announced that the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) resolved two wage theft enforcement actions against two District employers that require them to pay nearly $500,000 in relief to harmed workers and penalties to the District. In a settlement with the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), Rock Spring Contracting, LLC, a construction company, is required to pay over $280,000 for allegedly misclassifying workers as independent contractors and depriving them of legally-mandated paid sick leave and overtime pay. …

Under the District’s Workplace Fraud Act, which applies to the construction industry, companies are required to classify most workers as employees and those who fail to do so can face significant penalties. …

OAG’s Increased Efforts to Fight Wage Theft

In 2017, OAG worked with the Council of the District of Columbia to grant the agency independent authority to investigate and bring wage theft cases, and to increase penalties on employers who violate the District’s wage and hour laws. Since then, OAG has launched more than 30 investigations into wage theft and payroll fraud and has taken action against a home health care provider, a national electrical contracting firm, KFC franchises, a cell phone store, a cafe chain, and other businesses that harmed District workers. AG Racine also recently testified before Congress and highlighted findings from an OAG report about how worker misclassification-a type of payroll fraud-hurts workers, undercuts law-abiding businesses, and cheats taxpayers. Read our latest factsheet on OAG’s work to protect District workers.

(Read More)