Background: We saw this coming…the Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a former union rep from MA, is more than ready to get to work on enforcing labor laws–especially the misclassification of employees. President Biden has committed to ensuring that “workers are treated with dignity and receive the pay, benefits, and workplace protections they deserve.”
DOL Action: Now, DOL Secretary Marty is ready to party with the hiring of 100 investigators, which it announced last week. The DOL states: “Last year our investigators recovered $230 million in wages owed to 190,000 workers. They identified workers illegally paid as independent contractors and denied their rights.” And that was before they hired 100 new people to do that work.
The Problem: As you know, many states have limited the use of independent contractors already. States and now the feds cracking down on independent contractors can be very costly. In a recent press release, the DOL announced fines and back pay of $7.2 against a Virginia-based medical staffing agency, which intentionally violated federal laws by misclassifying over 1,000 employees as independent contractors.
Don’t forget, misclassification includes exempt (salaried) and non-exempt (hourly) employees–an area where employers often overlook or misapply the duties test. The DOL will not ignore that potentially expensive mistake.
The Solution: We have fixed-fee services that can properly sort out your employee classification issues before the state of feds do. Our 2022 Exempt/Non-Exempt Classification Overview and our Independent Contractor Audit will efficiently get your workplace in shape to avoid costly fines and back pay. We can help. Contact us.
Oh, and if you know anyone looking for work…the DOL is still hiring.