Risk Prevention Strategies: Avoiding Costly FLSA Missteps
What Should I Do If My Employer Failed to Pay Me Wages?
On May 29, 2025, Oregon Gov. Kotek signed into law SB 426 relating to unpaid wages of employees of contractors and subcontractors on construction projects in Oregon. This new wages law will be added to and made a part of ORS...more
If you’re an owner or general contractor on a construction project in Oregon, a new law passed just last week may make you liable to pay the wages and benefits of construction workers—twice. Senate Bill 426 significantly...more
The Michigan Builders Trust Fund Act (MBTFA), MCL 570.151 et seq. was signed into law in the early years of the Great Depression to protect people from fraud and misappropriation of funds in the construction industry. During...more
On July 13, 2022, Maryland’s highest court issued a wide-reaching decision in Amaya v. DGS Construction, LLC that could have a substantial impact on personnel costs for companies doing business in Maryland. The unanimous...more
New York appears poised to enact a modified version of legislation that would create potential liability for general contractors when their subcontractors fail to properly pay their employees. As noted in our prior...more
Last month, Virginia’s General Assembly enacted a new law that makes contractors on large construction projects liable for unpaid wages owed to their subcontractors’ employees. Senate Bill 838, codified at Virginia Code §...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A New York appellate court recently held that New York employers may be liable for liquidated damages for failure to pay employees on a timely basis, even where the employees have been paid in full....more
A general contractor in Southern California found itself on the hook for its subcontractor’s failure to pay wages to its workers, even though the general contractor had no knowledge of it. The case illustrates an important...more
The big legislative news in Illinois this spring concerned the passage of a law permitting marijuana for recreational use, beginning January 1, 2020. This development overshadowed other news affecting the construction...more
A bill pending in the Illinois legislature (HB2838) exemplifies a nationwide trend in the construction industry to hold a contractor who has a direct contract with an owner (“Direct Contractor”) liable for the unpaid wage and...more
A new Maryland law – Md. Code, Lab & Empl., § 3-507.2 (the “Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law”) – makes general contractors on public and private projects in Maryland liable for unpaid subcontractor employee wages,...more
During a construction project, circumstances may arise that lead a general contractor to consider termination of a subcontractor’s right to proceed under the subcontract. The Randy Kinder Excavating v. J.A. Manning...more
On October 1, 2018, Maryland Senate Bill 853, also known as Maryland’s General Contractor Liability for Unpaid Wages Act, went into effect, expanding the liability of a general contractor on a construction project under the...more
In February 2018, the Oregon Legislature attempted to push through House Bill 4154, which would have made a general contractor liable for unpaid wages, including benefit payments and contributions, of an employee of a...more
It’s been said that as California goes, so goes the nation. If so, general contractors throughout the country may soon be taking on more responsibility for the unpaid wages of the workers on their construction projects than...more
Many of you read with interest our recent article discussing Maryland's new law, the General Contractor Liability for Unpaid Wages Act. As we outlined in the article, that law makes a construction general contractor jointly...more
This year California ushered in a new law effective January 1, 2018 for private works construction contracts, California’s Labor Code section 218.7. The law applies to all direct contractors who make or take the contract in...more
A bill proposed in the Oregon House of Representatives threatens to fundamentally alter the relationships between contractors, their subcontractors, and their subcontractors’ employees. Under the bill, a contractor on a...more
As of January 1, 2018, direct contractors in California who make or take a contract “for the erection, construction, alteration, or repair of a building, structure, or other private work” are jointly and severally liable with...more
Commencing on January 1, 2018, California has enforced and made effective AB 1701 (Labor Code § 218.7). In accordance with this new law, "direct contractors" on private works of improvements will now be directly liable for...more
On September 13, 2017 the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill No. 1701, which requires the General Contractor of a private construction project to pay all unpaid wages and fringe benefits owed to an employee of a...more
Assembly Bill 1701 (AB 1701) provides a “direct contractor” is liable for the wages, benefits and contributions (plus interest) owed by its subcontractor(s), even if the subcontractor has been paid for the work. A “direct...more
In a decision with potentially huge ramifications for the construction industry, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that employees of a framing and drywall subcontractor were also the employees of a general contractor...more
California enacted Assembly Bill 1701 on October 14, 2017, which adds section 218.7 to the California Labor Code. It applies to contracts entered into after January 1, 2018 for private construction projects....more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently issued a decision which clarifies and expands the circumstances under which entities may be held liable as joint employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act...more