Wage Theft
February 26th, 2013
For 140 days every two years, lawmakers, their staffs, armies of lobbyists, activists, journalists, and others descend on the Texas Capitol for the regular session of the legislature. The legislative issue we're watching...
January 29th, 2013
Researchers at the University of Texas backs up what we've been saying for years: far too many construction workers in Texas are the victims of payroll fraud.
January 10th, 2013
As the Texas Legislature begins its 2013 regular session, employers across the state are looking at proposed legislation to place tighter controls on preventing employee misclassification. Misclassification is a practice...
December 17th, 2012
Republican Congressman Ted Poe has stepped into the gauntlet! I have known Ted Poe since his days as a criminal court judge in Harris County. I love to call him “Judge.” Please read Ted Poe's article in Politco "To...
November 30th, 2012
Immigration Reform should be viewed as a matter of national security and not social engineering. Currently our immigration system is more about family reunification than it is about ecomomic needs and national security. In...
September 16th, 2012
Originally posted on The Texas Tribune:Tycoons in commercial construction and homebuilding — industries often pegged as harbors for undocumented workers — are pushing back against some of their own, urging state lawmakers to...
March 15th, 2012
Wage theft, payroll fraud, alleged bribery and Houston Independent School District (HISD). These are a group of phrases you really don't want to see in the same sentence. But, according to a recent blog post on Construction...
January 5th, 2012
On July 13, Construction Citizen shared a story first reported by Dallas/Fort Worth television station WFAA about misclassification of workers on a school construction project. Last week, the same WFAA reporter submitted an...
November 23rd, 2011
Worker misclassification is becoming more and more of a problem as underhanded hiring by some companies harms not just the underpaid workers, but also the employers who play by the rules. Employers who hire legal workers and...
August 31st, 2011
In recent months, TexasGOPVote and I have written several articles on the topics of wage theft and employee misclassification. One company in particular, Carole Johnson Builders, LLC, came to our attention and their misdeeds...
February 21st, 2013
After talking about it for months, Sen. John Carona filed a bill that he believes will help stop the problem of worker misclassification, also known as payroll fraud.The bill could still be substituted and amended, but this...
January 16th, 2013
Many employers across Texas cheat the system everyday by misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees. The result is a loss of tax revenue and unemployment insurance, dodging of child support...
January 3rd, 2013
In Texas, we pride ourselves on job creation and entrepreneurship. This is the Promised Land, where you can be in charge of your own destiny. For many, if not most, this is true. For others, that rhetoric is used to dodge...
December 6th, 2012
For over two years now, I have been writing about unethical businesses using employee misclassification as a strategy to create an unfair competitive advantage over legitimate employers in the marketplace. According to an...
November 21st, 2012
It is time for Republicans in Texas to take a leadership role in solving the problem of employee misclassification and payroll fraud. During the 2011 Legislative Session there was good legislation put forward, but it did not...
March 28th, 2012
Employee misclassification and wage theft continue to be a serious problem that affects individuals, businesses and the Texas economy. Earlier this month, I wrote about an incident of wage theft that involved Houston...
January 12th, 2012
Mexican Cliques in Construction, a book by thirty-year Hispanic carpenter Ricardo Charles, details a story of racism, fraud, discrimination and organized crime that is apparently running rampant in the construction...
December 21st, 2011
Previously, I have written several articles about the problems for workers and government caused by the unethical and illegal business practices of some companies who misclassify employees to gain an unfair advantage over...
October 31st, 2011
While the "Occupy" movement protests broken labor ethics and a lack of U.S. jobs in New York's Zuccotti Park, there is a growing shortage of skilled craftspeople in America to work on building projects such as World Trade...
July 14th, 2011
Employee misclassification raises its ugly head once again. This time in a Dallas area school district that is building a new Center for the Performing Arts using contractors who are not properly classifying their employees...