Business lobby open to penalty for first-offense employee misclassification Business leaders would be OK with a flat $500 penalty on the first offense when a company wrongly classifies its employees as independent contractors, but only if the penalty is waived if the offending business can get into compliance with the law within 60 days, Jim Patterson with the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry told a state task force. Louisiana is the only state with a misclassification statute that lets first-time offenders off with a warning. Critics say lax enforcement allows bad actors to have a competitive advantage over companies that follow the law, which have to pay for more of the taxes that fund unemployment benefits.