A Sustainable Workforce Starts With You

Worker Misclassification

Payroll fraud (also called worker misclassification and workplace fraud) is the illegal practice of designating an employee as a "1099 worker" or an independent contractor. Unscrupulous employers do this to avoid paying payroll taxes, unemployment tax, or workers’ compensation insurance and are therefore able to submit lower bids for projects, undercutting responsible contractors. Several states have already passed laws to penalize those who cheat workers and taxing agencies in this way.

As I continue to travel around Texas to visit with construction company owners who are disgusted with some of the bad actors in their industry, I’m struck by just how candid many...
It has been three years since we began reporting about wage theft and worker misclassification here on Construction Citizen.  In September 2010 Jim Kollaer reported that...
A new law in Tennessee gives the state’s Department of Labor (DOL) sharper teeth with which to take a bigger bite out of workers’ compensation fraud in the construction industry....
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram delved into the issue of worker misclassification this Sunday with an extensive piece about the steps that the Texas Legislature has put the state on...
Laws Fight Questionable Practices that Misclassify Workers or Seek to Avoid Paying State Employment Taxes or PremiumsThe Illinois Governor’s Office reported on Tuesday that...
During the battle over a crackdown on worker misclassification in the Texas Legislature this year, I was struck by some of the testimony from business owners who had never been...
Now that the dust has settled from the regular session of the Texas legislature, there is some good news to report on the issue of worker misclassification. The broad...
“If a piece of the building falls to the ground and breaks, they have insurance for that,” said a middle-aged man in a wheelchair in Houston. I sat in a small portable building...
As experts and industry leaders get a look at the specifics of the federal immigration reform bill being pushed in the United States Senate, the devil is beginning to emerge from...