What Contractors Need to Know About E-Verify Requirements

Construction Dive

In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a requirement that private companies with more than 25 employees use the federal E-Verify data system to ensure their workers are legally permitted to work in the United States. 

That has led to a huge upswell of concern and confusion for construction leaders, who fear an already thin workforce will be weeded out further. Reports of abandoned jobsites in Florida in the weeks following the law’s passage only exacerbated those concerns. 

“There’s a lot of fear among the unauthorized immigrant population about what the law means for them, and I’m sure their employers are getting nervous as well,” Madelin Zavodny, a labor economist and professor at the University of North Florida, told Construction Dive. 

Twenty-two states now require the use of E-Verify by some or all employers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. For construction companies, it means the already vexing calculus of finding enough workers in an industry that has more than 383,000 job openings just got more complicated. 

“It’s already difficult to find good, eligible contractors who have time to take on projects,” said Alex Baghdassarian, a partner at Hanson Bridgett in Los Angeles. “To the extent those contractors are impacted by having to comply with this provision, that ends up having a trickle-down effect on the consumers that utilize their services.”

To read the rest of this story by Construction Dive, our sister publication, click here.