Romero Remodeling, a Pittsburgh-based construction business, will pay a $144,000 fine to settle allegations that it misclassified 192 workers as independent contractors in an agreement reached with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

L&I’s Bureau of Labor Law Compliance is responsible for the administration, education and enforcement of labor laws. It investigated Romero Remodeling after receiving a labor law complaint that Romero Remodeling may have been misclassifying employees. The investigation found that the company had misclassified 192 employees as independent contractors in violation of the Pennsylvania Construction Workplace Misclassification Act (Act 72).

The company will pay an administrative penalty of $750 per misclassified worker.

“Unfortunately, we were unaware that we were misclassifying employees as we had little resources in our office, and no full knowledge of the requirements,” Romero Remodeling said in a statement to CWS 3.0. “However, we are now aware and working closely with the Department of Labor to classify employees correctly moving forward and retroactively pay the fees, interest and penalties incurred.”

“Misclassification of workers undermines a worker’s access to essential benefits like unemployment and workers’ compensation while also creating an unfair advantage for businesses that sidestep Pennsylvania labor laws,” L&I Secretary Nancy Walker said in a press release. “We are committed to holding employers accountable, protecting workers and supporting businesses that play by the rules.”

The Pennsylvania Construction Workplace Misclassification Act, which took effect in 2011, aims to protect construction employees from being improperly classified as independent contractors. Under Act 72, employers may face civil penalties of up to $1,000 for first offenses and up to $2,500 for subsequent violations. Since its enactment in 2011, the Department of Labor and Industry has identified violations of Act 72 by more than 1,250 construction contractors, resulting in cumulative fines exceeding $4 million.

BLLC investigated 639 Act 72 cases in 2024; it issued fines totaling more than $1 million and identified 1,883 workers misclassified by 362 contractors.