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HOME - FACTS - TABLES - VIDEOS - INFOGRAPHICS - AGENCIES - RESEARCH <br />Holt, Josh. (2021). "Virginia Joins the Trend of States Cracking Down on Worker Misclassification in the <br />Construction Industry." Common Sense Contract Law. <br />Kev Finding: Virginia's 2020 employee classification law assumes all workers are employees unless the employer can prove <br />they are contractors under the IRS's employment relationship test. The bill specifically targeted construction by barring <br />known violators from bidding on public projects for two years. <br />Ormiston, Russell; Dale Belman; Julie Brockman; and Matt Hinkel. (2020). Rebuilding Residential <br />Construction. In Paul Osterman (Ed.), Creating Good Jobs: An Industry -Based Strategy, 75-113. MIT Press. <br />Kev Finding: An investigation of 71 drywall installers by Carpenters Local 525 in Kalamazoo, MI found 94% of contractors <br />misclassified workers; 73% of 1,840 workers were misclassified or working off -the -books. Further, this book chapter <br />describes the prevalence of illegal labor practices in residential construction and makes policy recommendations for <br />incentivizing compliance with labor and employment law. <br />Gerstein, Terri. (2020). Workers' Rights Protection and Enforcement by State Attorneys General: State AG <br />Labor Rights Activities from 2018 to 2020. Economic Policy Institute. <br />Kev Finding: In Washington, D. C., Massachusetts, and New York, state attorneys general have established offices to focus <br />on labor rights. Cases brought against employers for misclassification have generated multiple millions in settlements. <br />Erlich, Mark and Terri Gerstein. (2019). Confronting Misclassification and Payroll Fraud: A Survey of State <br />Labor Standards Enforcement Agencies. Harvard Law School. <br />Kev Finding: Misclassification, a tactic used by employers to reduce labor costs by depriving workers of protections, creates <br />a non-competitive environment against law-abiding employers paying market -based wages and benefits. Statutes <br />governing state wage enforcement agencies explicitly dictate that they must rely on complaint -driven investigations either <br />wholly or mostly. Regulators believe this to be ineffective as workers are intimidated into not reporting, do not know how <br />to report, or are unaware that their employer is acting illegally. <br />Lawless, Donald. ( ). "Michigan Employers Act Before the Payroll Fraud Enforcement Unit Comes <br />Knocking." The National Law Review, 11(207). <br />Kev Finding: State misclassification laws have caused employers to evaluate their practices for accidental or intentional <br />misclassification and stop the practice before penalties were administered. <br />Gerstein, Terri and Marni von Wilpert. (, ). State Attorneys General Can Play Key Roles in Protecting <br />Workers' Rights. Economic Policy Institute. <br />Kev Finding: State attorneys general have the authority to direct regulatory agencies and build cases against employers in <br />violation of wage and labor laws and to launch labor education programs in industries where misclassification is prevalent. <br />Mattera, Philip. (2018). Grand Theft Paycheck: The Large Corporations Shortchanging Their Workers' <br />Wages. Good Jobs First. <br />Kev Finding: Government enforcement of labor laws are subject to administrations hostile to workers and sympathetic to <br />employers. Union representation allows more workers to recover stolen wages. <br />Galvin, Daniel. (2016). "Deterring Wage Theft: Alt -Labor, State Politics, and the Policy Determinants of <br />Minimum Wage Compliance." Perspectives on Politics, 14(2): 324-350. <br />Kev Finding: Employers base their wage theft strategies on the expected probability of detection and the monetary cost <br />of a violation being detected. State laws that increase the costs of violations that are detected have led to statistically <br />significant declines in wage theft, if coupled with equally strong enforcement mechanisms. <br />National Employment Law Project (NELP). (2016). Contracted Out: Findings from a National Voter Survey. <br />Kev Finding: In a national survey of 1,000 registered voters, 84% of Americans said that companies misclassifying workers <br />as independent contractors is a serious problem and 78% said that workers are better off when they are employees. 78% <br />favor making it harder for companies to misclassify workers as independent contractors, including 73% of Republicans. <br />18 <br />