Lawmakers seek to track, investigate worker misclassification

Lawmakers in Indiana are slated Thursday to consider legislation that would call on several state agencies to study worker misclassification. 

 

H.B. 1132 would require the Department of State Revenue, the State Department of Labor, the Worker’s Compensation Board of Indiana, and the Department of Workforce Development to report before Sept. 1 and through 2024 to the state’s Interim Study Committee on Employment and Labor data that will help identify businesses that misclassify workers.

 

Specifically, the reports would include the number of employers that each department or the board determined during the immediately preceding state fiscal year improperly classified at least one worker as an independent contractor; the total number of improperly classified workers employed by those employers; the department’s or board’s calculation of the revenue not collected or the additional costs to the state that the department or board attributes to the improperly classified workers; and the amount of the penalties and interest assessed against those employers by each department or the board, and the amount of the penalties and interest assessed that has been collected.

 

The interim study committee would use the information for “the purposes of evaluating the results of legislative action as determined necessary,” according to the bill.

 

The bill would exempt residential contractors from the term “employer” for purposes of the reporting requirements.