Over the last few years, many state and local legislatures have passed laws mandating that employers enroll in the E-Verify Program in order to determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. On January 1, 2013, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee will join the many states that now require certain types of employers to use E-Verify.

If you employ temporary workers through a staffing company or employer of record, then you need to double check that your vendor is conducting the necessary checks, or else your company could be liable as a co-employer of those workers. If you work with independent contractors, the rules are not as cut and dried – most states don’t require companies to E-verify independent contractors. However, if your contractors are found to be misclassified, and then, also turn out to not be eligible to work in the United States as well, your company could land in serious hot water.

If you have any questions about E-verify, co-employment or any other issue relating to the use of temporary and project-based workers, please feel free to reach out to us at Emergent on info@emergent.com or call 855 250 5000. Meanwhile, here’s a guide to the latest E-verify laws:

In North Carolina, companies employing between 100 - 500 people must be registered and using the E-Verify system from January 1, 2013.

In Pennsylvania, the law is limited to state contractors and sub-contractors, who must register for E-Verify beginning January 1, 2013, if a project is worth $25,000 or more.

In Georgia, companies employing between 10 and 99 people have to register for E-Verify by July 1, 2013 – although larger companies have already been subjected to the law.

From January 1st,Tennessee will now require companies with more than 5 employees to register and use E-verify.

Law Logix provides a great state map as a reference guide to E-Verify laws for all 50 states here: www.lawlogix.com/i-9-and-e-verify-compliance/state-map