Compensation Solutions Blog
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Federal Employee Misclassification Protection Legislation Introduced
Late last week, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown introduced the Employee Misclassification Protection Act (EMPA), which would prevent and penalize workers from misclassifying workers as independent contractors, and provide those workers with the protections and benefits they would have earned. The legislation would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Social Security Act.
Employers would be [...]
Department of Labor’s 2011 Budget Request Introduced
On February 2, 2010, the Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis outlined the President’s DOL budget request for 2011. The focus of the budget is a vision of “good jobs for everyone.” The budget totals $117 billion, with $1.7 billion allocated for worker protection programs – a 4% increase from the prior year’s budget. Specifically, [...]
IRS Increases Number of Workplace Audits
The IRS estimates that employers underpay $14 billion in employer taxes each year. To recoup these costs, beginning in February, the IRS will target 6,000 businesses for workplace audits over the next three years. Of those, roughly 1,500 organizations will be tax exempt. Employers will be chosen randomly, without regard to size.
The auditors will focus [...]
Proposed Legislation Will Make it Harder for Employees to Classify Workers as Independent Contractors
Citing lost revenue due to misclassification of workers, budget challenges and workers’ rights, Senator John Kerry introduced a bill designed to reduce the misclassification of workers as independent contractors. The Taxpayer Responsibility, Accountability and Consistency Act of 2009 is a companion bill to the one introduced in Congress in August 2009.
The bill would require businesses [...]
Government Works to Ensure Compliance with FLSA
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently estimated that as much as 70% of all employers are out of compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act. To date, $1.4 billion in back wages have been recovered by the DOL on behalf of over two million employees. Moreover, $252 million in settlements have been paid out [...]
Wage & Hour Lawsuits In Full Swing
The owner of a maintenance service company was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Michigan for a number of workplace violations, including not paying their employees overtime that was due them, and failure to withhold federal income tax, unemployment tax, Social Security and Medicare from their wages. As a result of the investigation, the [...]