September 16, 2019

Recently there has been a renewed focus at the local level on fighting back against the kind of rampant misclassification we are seeing in the construction industry. Just last week, Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine issued a new report highlighting the pervasive problem that misclassification poses for the construction industry in the District of Columbia. Additionally, Michigan and Pennsylvania are in the process of considering legislation to address employer misclassification. The bills under consideration will ensure that all construction employers are competing on a level playing field.

These are just a few examples of the dramatic shift by policymakers across the country who are increasingly focused on combating misclassification in the construction industry. Since starting its public policy program in the fourth quarter of 2017, SWACCA has been at the forefront of fighting back against employer misclassification in our industry. Last Congress, SWACCA provided critical employer perspective that helped stop legislation that would have further encouraged misclassification.  We also successfully lobbied to ensure that implementation of the employer pass-through deduction created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did not create a tax incentive fueling more misclassification. Since these victories, SWACCA has worked to educate Congress about how misclassification in the construction industry gives low road contractors an unfair advantage over law-abiding employers in our industry. SWACCA is working to harness the momentum on misclassification at the local level to bring attention to this issue at the federal level.

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