News & Politics

Opinion: The deadly serious consequences of illegal employee misclassification

Low wages and employee misclassification often go hand-in-hand with unsafe job sites where safety rules are sometimes ignored.

A carpenter cuts a piece of plywood for a floor covering.

A carpenter cuts a piece of plywood for a floor covering. Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

There are an estimated 2.16 million construction workers in the U.S. who are illegally paid and misclassified as independent contractors every year by thousands of unscrupulous contractors, intent on defrauding federal, state and local governments out of an estimated $8.4 billion. The Pennsylvania Joint Task Force on the Misclassification of Employees found that such misclassification resulted in an annual loss of $91 million to Pennsylvania’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. 

Greed is the prime motivating factor that drives more and more contractors to underpay their workers, offer no benefits or medical coverage, and routinely use labor brokers to keep their employees off the books and avoid paying taxes, Social Security benefits and insurance coverage. This illegal practice allows those who cheat to substantially underbid their law-abiding competitors, who absorb all appropriate employee costs – including paying all required taxes, health insurance, retirement and workers’ compensation benefits.

Misclassification puts ill-gotten gains in the pockets of tax cheats, while also defrauding the government. It encourages lawlessness and an environment where workers are exploited, taken advantage of, and endangered. The UC Berkeley Labor Center found that “28% of families of construction workers in Pennsylvania are enrolled in one or more safety net programs at a cost to the state and federal government of $428 million per year.” Compared to all Pennsylvania workers, construction workers are more than twice as likely to lack health insurance (7% compared to 16%).

Low wages and employee misclassification often go hand-in-hand with unsafe job sites where OSHA safety rules are often ignored, if nonexistent. The failure to enforce job safety requirements has had deadly consequences – and law enforcement and local prosecutors are now paying attention and taking action. 

One case involved a 27-year-old Irish immigrant with an American wife and an infant son. He tragically lost his life working as a misclassified subcontractor for a Delaware County company that was criminally charged with unlawful labor practices, including multiple counts of Workplace Misclassification, Deceptive Business Practices, and Insurance and Worker’s Compensation Fraud. 

Another recent case involved an immigrant from Belarus who left behind a wife and a three-month-old child after he was killed on a job where the contractor was cited by OSHA for general safety and health violations and a failure to provide fall protection.

Misclassification has severe consequences beyond the financial loss to federal, state and local government coffers. It is a symptom of an illegal business model that cuts corners, pays low wages, fails to play by the rules and is willing to risk workers’ lives. It’s time to increase enforcement and prosecution of those who willfully break the law and misclassify their workforce while ignoring job site safety requirements – all to enrich themselves. 

William C. Sproule is Executive Secretary-Treasurer for the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters where he represents over 43,000 carpenters from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.