New Minnesota sub contractor laws puts more pressure on companies.
On Januarry 1st a new law in minnesota required individuals that did work for construction companies to obtain an independent contractor excemption certificate. In the past companies were trying to save money by paying individuals that consistantly worked for them as independent contractors. This allowed those companies not to pay all of the cost associated with employees such as workers compensation and payrol taxes. What this did is made it hard for companies that had employees or hire licened and insured sub-contractors to be prieced competively. Now the new law requires that any individual doing work consistantly for a company either become an employee in which the company pays all the appropriate taxes and takes all the responsibilities for that person, or the individual obtains all of the proper insurace and pays all of the appropriate taxes that makes them just as finacially responsible for their actions as a licened company.
For home owners eliminated a huge risk to your project. In the past if an individual that was not an employee for your contractor where to get hurt or break something on your property there is a chance the that contractors insurance would not cover that individual or his mistake. Although the company that you had hired may have plenty of insurace the individual may have only had a minimal policy that may not cover all of the issues that could arise. This could have left you as the homeowner at risk to be responsible for any remaining cost. Now with the law all of the individuals that comes to your site will either be employees covered under your contractor or they will have their own polices that cover them individualy.
For companies like 1st Choice this new law lets us become more competitive because we have always had employees and certified & licened sub-contractors, we are doing it the way it is suposed to be done. It allows us to continue to provide the high quality products and services and not worry about companies underbiding us by using lo cost labor and subs that put homeowners at risk.
For more information go to http://www.dli.mn.gov/CCLD/ICEC.asp
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