(Colorado Newsline) An upcoming bill in the Colorado Legislature will aim to protect construction workers from pervasive wage theft in the industry.

The bill would make prime contractors responsible for their subcontractors’ payments to laborers, so if a painter or drywall professional is underpaid or not paid at all, that prime contractor ultimately would be liable for the worker’s wage theft claim.

“What we see is an extraordinary abuse of power, and what upper team liability ends up doing is ensure that general contractors are hiring the right kinds of subcontractors. There will come a point that if they are liable for the bad actions of their subcontractors, they will stop hiring them,” said Denver City Council member Amanda Sawyer, who helped draft the bill.

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Denver enacted a wage theft ordinance this year that allows workers to take complaints up the chain of command to the company that hired the worker’s direct employer. Sawyer said this approach disincentivizes main contractors from hiring cheap subcontractors who might be keeping costs low due to wage theft.

Wage theft can take many forms, but happens when an employer withholds money or benefits owed to employees. During a press conference at the Capitol in Denver on Friday morning, workers shared stories of companies altering their pay schedule without notice, not paying wages on time and simply withholding thousands of dollars of earned pay.

It’s an injustice. It’s stolen rent money. It’s money that would have gone onto the kitchen table, to health care, to back-to-school supplies.

– State Rep. Meg Froelich

In Colorado, nearly 1 in 10 of Fair Labor Standards Act violations between 2018 and 2021 were in the construction industry, according to a 2022 report from the Colorado Fiscal Institute. Overall, there is about $728 million in wage theft per year in Colorado, with a disproportionate number of Latino workers the victims.

“It’s an injustice. It’s stolen rent money. It’s money that would have gone onto the kitchen table, to health care, to back-to-school supplies,” said Rep. Meg Froelich, an Englewood Democrat who will help run the bill. “We want to house as many people as we can who are flooding into our state. This bill is another step to make sure the workers we rely on so desperately are fairly compensated.”

The bill, set to be introduced next week as the Legislature reconvenes, would build on existing wage theft laws. A 2019 law defined wage theft as a felony if it is above $2,000. A 2022 measure increased penalties for wage theft, among other provisions.

“It is clear that there is still work that needs to be done to not only support workers who fall victim to wage theft, but to prevent it from happening in the first place,” said House Majority Leader Monica Duran, a Wheat Ridge Democrat.

Along with Froelich, who sponsored the 2019 and 2022 bills, the upcoming legislation will be sponsored by Sen. Jessie Danielson, a Wheat Ridge Democrat who was also on the previous bills, and Duran, who sponsored the 2022 measure.

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