With thousands of construction projects large and small going on at any given time in Wisconsin, state and local officials have a heavy responsibility making sure everyone is adhering to employment, safety and health laws.

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A state task force has signed off on a series of policy suggestions to step up the enforcement of rules governing wage-theft and misclassification, ills that undercut honest contractors and exploit workers.

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A task force wants the state officials to work together better and hire more investigators to root out wage theft, payroll fraud and other abuses, while requiring builders to register with the state in order to work in Wisconsin.

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State agencies on Wednesday told a panel that the costs of the wage theft — a persistent source of concern in the construction industry — have worsened in recent years, depriving the state of millions worth of tax revenue.

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If Jairo Cruz had been a professional football player instead of a construction worker, he may well have been deemed a hero for playing his way through injury and taking one for the team.

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Life hasn’t always been easy for Hilaro Flores. A native of Mexico, the immigrant construction worker now living just over Wisconsin's border, in Minnesota, lost his mother when he was a young child. His father couldn’t take care of Hilaro and his four siblings, so the children were sent off to live in different homes.

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The lead Wisconsin misclassification investigator says he'd like more authority to issue stop work orders when officials find evidence that wage theft, payroll fraud and other abuses are taking place at a job site.

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Doug Speedling isn't the sort of person who would strike anyone as an agitator. Sporting a neatly trimmed mustache, the owner of Speedling Construction in St. Paul comes off as a businessman who just wants to do what he does best: build things.

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If drywall and flooring could talk, it'd probably have a dark story to tell about Wisconsin's ongoing construction boom. Behind projects big and small, say people close to the industry, there thrives an underground economy made up of contractors who cheat their workers out of wages and benefits to deliver projects on time and under budget.

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Gov. Tony Evers on Friday announced appointments to a task force that will examine worker misclassification and payroll fraud in Wisconsin.

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