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A Minnesota Democrat whose retort to a Republican about potential “benefit[s] of shoplifting” during a hearing on worker misclassification defended the exchange as sarcasm gone awry.
During a Minnesota House Workforce and Labor Committee hearing this week, lawmakers reviewed information on how laws governing employee and independent contractor classifications affect insurance payments and other benefits, according to local reports.
State Rep. Dave Pinto, D-St. Paul, responded after a Republican lawmaker voiced concern that worker misclassification ultimately falls on the taxpayer.
“It is an intriguing line of questions,” Pinto said, appearing to suggest a study on the “benefit of shoplifting and retail theft.”
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A suspect is taken into custody outside a big-box store in California on an unspecified date. (Will Lester/Getty Images)
Pinto spoke of a recent presentation before another committee he sits on that sought to address solutions to organized retail theft.
“And it actually had not occurred to me to ask — it probably would have been good — to make sure that they would study sort of the benefit of shoplifting, of retail theft since because perhaps people are relying on that and sort of using that maybe it’s you know assisting them in some way,” he said.
Pinto went on to describe whether people involved in such activities are considered to be violating the law, and that there may be a policy question at the root of such a discussion.
In comments to Digital, Pinto defended the remarks, saying he was reacting sarcastically to Rep. Isaac Schultz, R-Mille Lacs, who had posed the original question.
“My comments, intended to be sarcastic, followed a line of questioning from Republican Rep. Isaac Schultz suggesting a study is needed on whether the illegal practice of worker misclassification harms consumers,” Pinto said.
“As a prosecutor, of course I take retail theft and shoplifting seriously. Any insinuation to the contrary is absurd — just like Rep. Schultz’s remarks were.”
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Nonetheless, Pinto’s original comment was viewed thousands of times on social media and elicited responses from other lawmakers, amid ongoing scrutiny over social services fraud and other scandals in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
State Rep. Krista Knudsen, R-Lake Shore, was rendered speechless in a video response to the matter, as she put her hands to her face.
“There are no benefits to shoplifting for the people that are being shoplifted from. I have no idea what else to say,” Knudsen said. “I’m shocked, actually. I don’t even know what to say. Who — I don’t know what to say — Who benefits from shoplifting? The criminals.”
State Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican from the Minneapolis area, appeared to cite her region’s nationally recognized scandals, saying she cannot believe the comment was made by Pinto.
“[W]e are trying to prevent fraud and prevent crime in Minnesota and this has been an issue that we’ve dealt with as a legislature for many years. We finally got the organized retail theft crime in statute last session,” she said.
“It’s been a long haul and that’s a tool that we need to crack down on this real problem throughout our communities around the state.”
Worker misclassification has been a focus of Democrat-Farmer-Labor lawmakers in the state legislature for some time, as an effort began in 2024 to ban employers from misclassifying employees.
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That policy was reportedly spurred by a construction worker who testified before lawmakers that he racked up major medical bills after a work-related injury, but his employer later only offered him a small amount for expenses and “told him to forget about insurance and to change his name and address, saying the bills would eventually disappear if nobody paid them,” according to a post on the House of Representatives website.
The man later allegedly found out his employer was misclassifying employees in order to save on labor costs, according to the lawmakers’ page.
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State Rep. Emma Greenman, D-Minneapolis, authored HF4444 to ensure businesses don’t act in such a way in the future and/or misclassify employees as contractors or the like.
“Our job is to ensure that Minnesota workers have the protections that we in law provide,” she said at the time.
