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HOME - FACTS - TABLES - VIDEOS - INFOGRAPHICS - AGENCIES - RESEARCH <br />Siffler, Chris. (2014). Wage Nonpayment in Colorado: Workers Lost $750 Million Per Year. Colorado Fiscal <br />Institute. <br />Kev Finding: Wage theft in Colorado disproportionately affects the construction and hotel services industries. Construction <br />accounts for 6% of Colorado's employment, but 21% of FLSA violations. Across the whole state, the research estimates <br />$750 million is stolen each year. This results in $5 million in lost income tax for the state. <br />Yen Liu, Yvonne; Daniel Flaming; and Patrick Burns. (2014). Sinking Underground: The Growing Informal <br />Economy in California Construction. Economic Roundtable. <br />Kev Finding: An analysis of California's construction industry found that 16% of construction workers were employed in <br />the informal economy in 2011, including 104,100 construction workers who were not reported by their employers and <br />39,800 who were misclassified as independent contractors. The "informal tax gap" results in $774 million in lost revenue <br />from payroll taxes alone—$301 million to the federal government and $473 million to California. <br />Alexander, Charlotte and Arthi Prasad. (2014). "Bottom -Up Workplace Enforcement: An Empirical <br />Analysis." Indiana Law Journal, 89: 1069-1131. <br />Kev Finding: As worker power and stability decreases, so does their legal knowledge and ability to contest labor violations <br />in the courts. 43% of workers who experience a workplace problem with their employer did not pursue the claim in court <br />for fear of retaliation or lack of confidence in their claim. 43% of workers who did make a formal experienced retaliation <br />in the form of termination, suspension, decreases in hours, or reporting the worker to law enforcement agencies. <br />Gleeson, Shannon; Ruth Silver Taube; and Charlotte Noss. (2014). Santa Clara County Wage Theft Report. <br />University of California, Santa Cruz; Santa Clara Law. <br />Kev Finding: Filing wage liens is often the responsibility of local government officials. To bring successful wage theft claims, <br />individuals and classes can engage with local government officials for support in ensuring repayment. Local governments <br />can also suspend permits for violators and prosecute violators through the District Attorney. <br />Ordonez, Franco and Mandy Locke. (2014). "IRS' 'Safe Harbor' Loophole Frustrates Those Fighting Labor <br />Tax Cheats." McClatchy D. C. Bureau. <br />Kev Finding: Due to the "safe harbor" provision in the Revenue Act, revenue officers charged with investigating worker <br />misclassification and payroll fraud often find themselves unable to administer penalties or change employer practices. <br />Some IRS examiners describe the provision as the "greatest impediment" to fighting worker misclassification. <br />Price, Amy; Emily Timm; and Cristina Tzintzun. ( ). Build a Better Texas: Construction Conditions in the <br />Lone Star State. Workers Defense Project; University of Texas at Austin. <br />Kev Finding: A survey of 1,194 construction workers found 41% were misclassified or working off -the -books (a loss of $55 <br />million in UI tax revenue), 22% had experienced wage theft, and 32% said their employers had no workers' comp policy. <br />National Employment Law Project (NELP). ( ; . ). Winning Wage Justice: ASummary of Research on Wage <br />and Hour Violations in the United States. <br />Kev Finding: This brief summarizes different wage theft studies by geographic regions and industries in the United States. <br />Gordon, Colin; Matthew Glasson; Jennifer Sherer; and Robin Clark -Bennett. (2012). Wage Theft in Iowa. <br />Iowa Policy Project. <br />Kev Finding: Misclassification is the second -most -cited wage theft offense in Iowa and enables multiple other forms of <br />wage theft such as overtime violations, break time violations, and underpayment of wages. At the time, Iowa had only a <br />single investigator dedicated to wage theft. <br />Casey, Robert and Eva Lewis. ( ). Independent Contractors and Employee Misclassification in the <br />Construction Industry. Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart. <br />Kev Finding: The Illinois Employee Classification Act assumes all construction workers are employees unless the employing <br />party can prove they are independent contractors. In the first 3 years after enactment, $1.3 million in penalties was <br />recovered for misclassified workers. This bill bars known violators from bidding on public project for up to 4 years. <br />58 <br />