Stop Worker Abuse
Now!
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Stop Worker Abuse
Now!
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Have you seen one of these in your neighborhood? What is it all about?
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A growing social cancer exists in our society today.
What is it? It is the deliberate misclassification of workers by their employer. Worker misclassification occurs when an employer treats an employee as an independent contractor in order to avoid paying social security taxes, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, liability insurance and overtime pay. Many businesses engage in “1099-ing”, which refers to the practice of reporting on IRS Form 1099 any income paid to workers who are independent contractors. Many of these same businesses should be reporting that income on IRS form W-2, which is intended for the reporting of income to employees.
How does worker misclassification effect me? Our communities suffer when unscrupulous contractors misclassify their employees to avoid the costs of having employees, including withholding taxes. Many times, these taxes go unpaid. This allows contractors to illegally cut their labor costs, giving them an unfair advantage when bidding for construction contracts against responsible contractors who properly classify their workers as employees. Not only does this make it impossible for legitimate contractors to compete for this work, it cheats our local, state and federal governments out of badly needed tax revenue. It is also unfair to legitimate taxpayers who pay their fair share of taxes.
The effects on the misclassified workers are far worse. For instance, when these workers get sick or hurt on the job, they must often rely on the public dole for medical assistance. Having no medical insurance or workers’ compensation, health care is usually obtained by these workers at the expense of the local citizenry and the very governments that are being starved by this scheme. Frequently this exploitation unfairly impacts immigrant workers.
To inform the public of worker abuses in the construction industry, and to stop the illegal misclassification of employees as independent contractors.
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