On April 22, 2010 Sen. Sherrod Brown, (D-OH) and Rep. Lynn Woolsey, (D-CA) introduced the Employee Misclassification Prevention Act (EMPA) in the Senate and House, respectively. The primary aim of EMPA is to stop employers from improperly designating employees as independent contractors. Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is a major tactic employers use to avoid paying employees minimum and overtime wages, along with denying these employees other rights provided under various employment laws.

You can read the full text of the bill here.

If passed as written, EMPA would, among other things:

1) require every company covered by the FLSA to provide a written notice to all workers informing them that they have been classified as either an employee or “non-employee,” directing them to a Department of Labor Web site for further information about the rights of employees under the law, and informing them to contact the Department of Labor if they have any questions about whether they have been misclassified;

2) require companies to keep accurate records of the hours of work and wages of employees and keep comparable records for “non-employees” providing labor or services to the business;

3) add a new provision making it a “prohibited act” under FLSA §15 (29 USC §215) to fail to properly classify a worker as an employee; and

4) double the amount of liquidated damages (resulting in triple damages) for willful violations of the minimum wage or overtime laws where the employer has also misclassified the affected employee.

The bill as currently written would also direct the Secretary of Labor to establish a webpage on the Department of Labor website to inform individuals of their rights.
This law would be a great step in the fight to prevent wage theft as employees will have greater protections than ever against the unscrupulous employers who improperly classifies their workers.