Earlier this week, I noted that a key legislative committee had approved a bill that would increase penalties for misclassification of workers as independent contractors. 

Yesterday, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal gave some more details to those changes in a press conference in announcing the recommendations of the Joint Enforcement Commission on Employee Misclassification

“A crackdown on misclassification cheating is long overdue — because it does devastating harm to taxpayers, workers and honest businesses,” Blumenthal said. “Calling workers independent contractors when they are really employees costs workers benefits, taxpayers revenue and honest businesses a fair opportunity to compete for work.”

The commission’s proposed measures include increasing the penalty from $300 per violation to $300 a day per violation; strengthening criminal sanctions against misclassification and joint investigations of misclassification complaints with other state agencies.

“Misclassification is cheating — plain and simple — that has devastating economic impacts,” Blumenthal said. “Companies that misclassify employees as independent contractors harm not only workers, but other businesses. Failing to pay taxes and provide health and other benefits enables cheaters to underbid honest businesses."

The Hartford Business Journal has additional background here.

As it turns out, our next webinar (registration required) is very timely.  On March 24th, we plan to discuss misclassification of workers and other hot topics related to wage/hour laws. It’s free so please join us.