A legislative committee wants to see better enforcement in the construction industry when it comes to under-the-table pay and misclassifying employees as independent contractors.

After hearing from industry representatives, the Business and Labor Interim Committee on Wednesday asked the Construction Services Commission to come up with preliminary recommendations by its November meeting.

Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley, had some harsh words for "those employers who are paying cash."

"They suppress wages, they suppress taxes and everything else," he said. "It's killing our system. If we don't do something in the enforcement area, we've really made a mistake."

F. David Stanley, director of the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, said his agency has 11 full-time investigators who are currently handling 25-30 complaints each.

Committee members suggested that better communication among agencies would help enforcement, along with adding an enforcement role to the Attorney General's Office.

When employers dodge taxes and insurance, they often undercut workplace safety and drive up insurance costs for employers who do things by the books, said John Dee Grow, president of the Salt Lake chapter of Painting and Decorating Contractors of America.

"It comes down to enforcement," he said. "The people who are doing this are doing it with impunity...It's the workers and the taxpayers who are paying the brunt of this."

The issue often arises, mostly in residential construction, when contractors use subcontractors who may use other subcontractors, said Grow.

"It starts getting grayer and grayer," he said. "You don't know if the last guy on the chain drove up in his car and went to work, was paid in cash and left."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com