By Nate Shannon, Special to MediaNews Group
Apr 27, 201
Every year, unethical businesses are unfairly stealing from their own workers. These businesses misclassify their workers as “1099 Independent Contractors” to rob their workers of overtime pay. In Michigan, minimum wage workers have 27 percent of their wages stolen by their employers.
An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute estimates that Michigan workers were robbed of $429 million in stolen overtime wages between 2013 and 2015. More than 2.8 million Michigan workers were victims of this scam within that short timespan.
When workers are robbed of their wages, they’re more likely to end up in poverty. EPI estimates that one-third of cheated workers depend on public assistance programs to feed their families and pay the bills.
Recently, I joined my fellow legislators in introducing legislation to crack down on payroll and tax fraud to close any loopholes.
To tackle this crime, we must have enforcement with tougher penalties for businesses that take advantage of their employees.
An enforcement unit to investigate violations of wage and hourly laws has been proposed in Michigan by the Attorney General. This team will be made up of professionals from the AG’s office as well as, Michigan’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, the Michigan State Police and other relevant departments. By bringing these departments together, we can better coordinate law enforcement activities and uphold fairness for our employees.
This is a critical piece of the puzzle to protect Michigan workers. I’m also joining my colleagues in co-sponsoring legislative proposals to address wage and overtime theft, by increasing punishments against lawbreakers. Additionally, we will be focusing on protecting those that speak out when they see these unfair practices in the workplace.