Construction contractors agree to giving more than $1M in back pay for denying overtime, other wages
More than $1 million will be repaid to construction workers in one of the largest settlements of its kind in Minnesota history.
The consent decree spells out the back pay 26 workers will get for work they should have been paid between 2019 and 2023.
"When wages are stolen, it hurts the families of the workers. The taxes that are not paid on those wages hurts taxpayers who have to pick up the tab and it hurts workers who play by the rules," attorney Burt Johnson said.
One construction company owner explained how wage theft hurts her business, saying she loses out on contracts that are underbid because the company plans to cheat.
"When contractors commit wage theft or misclassify workers, what many of us call employment fraud, they are not competing on skill. They are competing on whether they can get away with breaking the law," Katie Kunshier, CEO of Crossroad Construction, said.
There were 19 projects investigated, including the development of the Viking Lakes project in Eagan.
"Advantage Construction Inc. agreed to pay full back wages in the amount of $1.24 million. They were the first-tier contractor that hired PMC. PMC agreed to pay $39,000 in liquidated damages," Nicole Blissenbach said.
The most common methods of wage theft include not paying overtime and misclassifying employees as contractors, so they earn less.
More recent laws will hold not just contractors but developers responsible. Several people at Monday's press conference on the settlement say they are optimistic there will be more large settlements in the future because of those laws.