About 20% of construction workers are improperly and unlawfully misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees. This comes as part of the Lexington Herald-Leader's study on the intentional and widespread abuse and misuse of the independent contractor classification. See End Independent Contractor Tax Dodge by Construction Companies.
By wrongly misclassifying employees as independent contractors employers can competitive advantage by cheating on at least four different points: (1) they get out of paying overtime to the employees; (2) they get out of paying payroll taxes; (3) they get out of paying unemployment compensation insurance; and, (4) they get out of paying workers compensation insurance.
Employees that have been cheated out of overtime because they've been misclassified as an independent contractor do have some recourse: they can file suit to recover the overtime they've earned but not been paid under both federal and Kentucky state law.
Lexington, Kentucky overtime lawyer Robert Abell represents employees and individuals recover the overtime they have earned but not been paid, contact him at 859-254-7076.
