From Wage & Hour – Developments & Hightlights, Mark Tabakman writes about the Obama Administration’s focus on misclassification and the initiative in its proposed budget. He writes:
“Under the proposed budget, it is anticipated that the DOL will hire more than 350 new employees, including 177 investigators and other enforcement staff. The Wage Hour Division, the entity charged with conducting investigations relating to misclassification, will hire an additional ninety new investigators.
The amount of $25 million will go towards the so-called “misclassification initiative.” Investigators will look more numerously to and closer at alleged employee misclassification, such as when workers are deemed independent contractors or consultants. They are then ostensibly denied overtime and the protection of unemployment benefits.
The additional enforcement personnel will work pursuant to a joint undertaking by the DOL and Treasury to take away the reasons that employers misclassify employees and to beef up the power of both agencies to seek enhanced penalties for violations of the employee status rules/laws.
Nancy Leppink, the Deputy Administrator of the USDOL, has stated that when misclassification occurs “employees are deprived of the protections and benefits of the nation’s most important employment laws, and their employers gain an unfair advantage in the marketplace. Employees are particularly vulnerable to misclassification in these difficult economic times.”…”
Read the full story at The Drive Towards “Fighting” Misclassification Heats Up In DC
