LANSING — House and Senate Democrats unveiled a plan today to crack down on companies committing payroll fraud, increasing penalties for bad actors while strengthening oversight to protect businesses playing by the rules. Unscrupulous companies stole an estimated $429 million in wages and overtime pay from hardworking Michiganders between 2013 and 2015, impacting more than 2.8 million people. In addition to the impact on individual workers, payroll fraud costs Michigan taxpayers $107 million a year in tax revenue. In response, state Rep. Leslie Love (D-Detroit), whose House Bill 4640 would require employers to notify worker if they must make court-ordered deductions to a paycheck one pay period or ten business days in advance, issued the following statement:
“You should be able to know with absolute certainty what your paycheck is going to look like when you open it —otherwise it’s impossible to budget, to save, and to pay your bills on time. We need to ensure that if any changes are made to someone’s paycheck—even for honest or legal reasons like court-ordered deductions—they know about it in advance and are able to prepare accordingly.”