Attorney General urges broader enforcement power in bid to curb wage theft and misclassification

Attorney General Anthony Brown urged the House Economic Matters Committee on Feb. 26 to give his office new authority to pursue wage theft and worker misclassification across all industries through House Bill 1096, the Prevention and Worker Protections Act.

"This bill is about fairness," Brown said in opening remarks, explaining the measure would expand the state's Workplace Fraud Act beyond construction and landscaping and create a worker protection unit in the Attorney General's Office. He cited a recent District of Columbia enforcement action that returned $3,750,000 to harmed construction workers as an example of the kind of impact he said Maryland could achieve.

The bill, as described by Assistant Attorney General Heather Heilman, would permit the Attorney General to bring actions to enforce the Workplace Fraud Act and related statutes including the Maryland Wage and Hour Law, the Wage Payment and Collection Law and the Prevailing Wage Law. Heilman said the measure "creates liability for general contractors, higher level contractors…