The new regulatory agenda from the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division includes rulemakings addressing independent contractor classification and joint employer liability. The agenda also projects final action on a proposal to remove various wage-and-hour policy statements and interpretations from the Code of Federal Regulations.
Other initiatives address tipped employees, child labor, domestic service workers, and the rescission of the federal contractor minimum wage regulations.
Regarding worker classification and joint employer liability, the Trump Administration appears focused on replacing recent regulatory approaches with standards that it believes enhance predictability and consistency. However, judicial interpretations heavily influence both topics, so the significance of these rulemakings may lie less in changing substantive legal obligations and more in providing guidance for WHD in evaluating compliance and enforcing existing wage-and-hour laws.
Click here to read more from the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association. CWC has summarized the WHD’s regulatory agenda for its members.