In his Interim Committee Charges for the 83rd Legislature issued on January 31, 2014, Joe Straus, the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives charged the House Committee on Business and Industry to examine the issue of misclassifying employees as independent contractors on workers, employers, income tax withholding, and the unemployment insurance system. He also charged the Committee to review current statutory deterrents for misclassification and make recommendations for changes if necessary.
Speaker Straus specifically referenced H.B. 2015, which was signed into law in June 2013, as an example of a current statutory deterrent to review. H.B. 2015 requires government contractors and subcontractors who provide skilled or unskilled labor or professional work (not including consulting services or professional services such as accounting, architecture, landscape architecture, land surveying, medicine, optometry, professional engineering, real estate appraising, or professional nursing) to properly classify any individual directly retained and compensated for services performed in connection with the government contract and institutes a $200 penalty for each individual who is misclassified.
