Connecticut and Rhode Island building contractors’ inability to properly track workers’ wages and time sheets according to federal fair labor guidelines is drawing scrutiny of regulators, authorities say.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced Wednesday the launch of a multiyear enforcement initiative focused on the construction industries in both states.
At issue, the agency says, is their widespread noncompliance with the minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
The goal of this initiative is to remedy systemic violations and promote sustained compliance among contractors and subcontractors working on construction projects, the agency said in a statement.
Similarly, state labor investigators routinely show up at job sites statewide unannounced and find enough worker misclassification violations to order the sites shut down until they do comply.
“The Wage and Hour Division is employing new strategies to combat this ‘race to the bottom’ culture so that construction workers will not see their wages and benefits undercut, and law-abiding employers will not face unfair competition from contractors who take advantage of workers so eager for a job that they will accept substandard wages and unsafe conditions,” said Neil Patrick, the division’s Hartford district director.
Since 2008, Patrick says, the Hartford office has conducted 183 investigations of construction industry employers in Connecticut and Rhode Island, recovering nearly $3.3 million in back wages for 1,226 employees.
Typical violations include failing to pay employees for all hours worked, paying piece-work rates that result in pay below the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage, failing to pay overtime compensation and misclassifying covered workers as independent contractors to circumvent wage laws.
