Minnesota First to Establish New Felony Wage-Theft Legislation

Ahead of other states, Minnesota enacted a new law substantially amending current labor statutes, including wage and hour requirements, protections, and sanctions, as of July 1, 2019. Provisions amending criminal wage theft and sanctions take effect August 1, 2019. While the legislation has made headlines in the North Star State for being the first to elevate the criminal status of …

Case Study: Desperately Seeking Service (for Multi-Rate Payroll Processing)

“We’re all construction with multi-state and union, so it’s a complex payroll,” says Tammy Evans, CFO of industrial painter Certified Coatings Co. — a Fairfield, CA division of Germany-based The Muehlhan Group. Tammy explains just how complicated it can get on one of their jobs, “One of our local collective bargaining agreements was that guys working at 50 ft., 100 …

Performing a Busy-Season Reassessment

With summer’s busy project season in full swing, this midpoint provides an opportunity to reassess your processes and make this season a success. Chances are, a lot of the finer details that were uncertain at the start of the year — like how many bids you might win and the number of additional workers you need to hire — should …

Will Multi-State Taxes Get Simpler for Contractors?

In 2019, a bill is advancing to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance that could significantly change how construction employers who work in multiple states handle their payroll taxes. The proposed S. 604, currently known as the Mobile Workforce State Income Tax Simplification Act of 2019, seeks to “limit the authority of States to tax certain income of employees for …

A Construction Pay Stub Explained

If you do construction payroll, you know that it’s not always simple. Whether you’re dealing with Davis-Bacon requirements, prevailing wage rates, union benefits, taxes for multiple states and localities, or even just overtime pay, there’s a lot that goes into calculating the amount your employee receives. This can lead to questions from employees who wonder what all the seemingly cryptic …

DOL Proposes to Clarify Eligible Pay for Overtime

Though a different proposed overtime rule made headlines this spring, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently published a more modest proposal for the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) on March 28, 2019. According to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Regular Rate, DOL hopes to clarify and update the decades-old regulations that help employers calculate the appropriate overtime pay for its …

Sample Certified Payroll Report: Interact With an Example WH-347

What Is Certified Payroll? Certified payroll refers to weekly construction labor reporting that a contractor submits for each government contract they’ve worked. This, along with a signed statement of compliance, “certifies” to federal, state, or local agencies that laborers on the project have earned at least the required “prevailing” — or standard — wages. Federal, state, and local laws determine …

Three States Extend 2019 W-2 Deadlines

As of the first week of February, three U.S. states and one U.S. territory have extended the electronic filing deadline for Forms W-2 Wage and Tax Statement. Iowa and Puerto Rico cite technical reasons for their extensions. Both Wisconsin and Michigan extended their deadlines because of recent severe weather conditions that closed state agencies and disrupted U.S. Postal Service delivery. …

Delivery From the IRS May Be Delayed. But Deadlines Aren’t

If you ordered paper Forms W-2, W-3 and 1099 from the IRS in late December, you may not receive them until after the January 31 filing deadline. As of the time of publication, the IRS is not extending this deadline and, instead, encourages employers to look for these forms at office supply stores. The IRS additionally reminds companies that Form …

Four Tips to Help Take the Pain Out of Union Payroll Reporting

Processing payroll is complicated, and adding union requirements to the mix can make the task feel insurmountable. Contractors who work with union employees not only have to worry about tracking benefits packages, health care, vacation time, and 401(k), but they also need to take into account additional deductions or fringes their home union might require — like political action contributions, …