NOW is the time to put the people who regularly work for on payroll to avoid fines. Classify them as employees not as independent contractors. You can use Paychex for payroll service, and the payroll can be automatically debited from a business checking account.

 clipped from www.crainsnewyork.com

State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith said a task force she chaired found more than 2,000 violations at 17 companies in the four months since Gov. Eliot Spitzer created the force. Ms. Smith noted that the work requires coordination among five agencies at the state and local level, slowing progress.

By counting employees as independent contractors, rather than full-time workers, employers avoid paying unemployment insurance, overtime, workers’ compensation insurance and other benefits.

The businesses targeted are expected to pay $1.4 million in unemployment insurance and $3 million for unpaid wages owed to workers.

Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council and a longtime advocate for a crackdown on independent contractors, said the action will benefit most businesses.

“Misclassification is unfair to workers, unfair to employers who obey the law,” Mr. Ott said.