From The Missouri Times, Kevin McLaughlin discusses the issue of misclasssification in the construction industry in Missouri. Kevin writes:
With tax season here, the construction industry is sounding the alarm on a billion-dollar scheme that allows crimes to go unchecked and the guilty unpunished.
Tax fraud and misclassification of workers is robbing federal, state and local governments of much-needed revenue, while ripping off vulnerable construction workers who are paid meager wages, and sometimes, not paid at all for their work.
We know who the bad apples are. They don’t play by the rules, they are hurting legitimate contractors and they certainly do not care about the safety and wellbeing of their employees.
The problem occurs when small, often out of state companies get hired to perform subcontracting work on construction sites. Too many are misclassifying their employees as independent contractors, paying them off the books or cheating them out of what they’ve earned. The Carpenters Union is working with state and local governments to create investigative units, making it easier for victimized workers to blow the whistle and enforce existing tax laws that could help shut down suspicious contractors.
While workers bear the primary burden of misclassification and wage theft, the ramifications of these illegal labor practices ripple throughout every Missouri community.
Data from the Missouri Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, estimates that at least one in five Missouri construction workers fall victim to fraud. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. construction worker families are forced to enroll in safety net programs to make ends meet, costing federal and state governments billions of dollars annually. That’s money they don’t have to pay for better roads, more schools and essential social services.
Read the full opinion at Opinon: Tax Fraud and Wage Theft: A Growing Epidemic in Missouri Construction – The Missouri Times