Posts tagged FLSA
Former EEOC Commissioner and Acting WHD Administrator Keith Sonderling Announced as Pick for Deputy Secretary of Labor
January 16, 2025 // The deputy secretary of labor serves as the de facto chief operating officer of the DOL, managing an approximately 17,000-person workforce and a $14 billion dollar budget. Further, the deputy manages the politically appointed heads of each agency that falls under the DOL, including vital agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, WHD, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), among others. Sonderling has a track record of prioritizing clear guidance on both traditional issues such as those found in wage and hour law or occupational safety and cutting-edge issues such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. Sonderling’s record throughout his career provides insight into what employers can expect from Sonderling’s leadership as the deputy secretary of labor.
DOL Making it Harder to Hire Independent Contractors
October 1, 2024 // The DOL’s test is just one of many. The IRS uses a “right-to-control” test, which is generally more business-friendly, focusing on whether the hiring firm controls how the work is done. In contrast, many states apply the strict ABC test, where a worker must: ⦁ be free from the company’s control, ⦁ work outside the usual course of the hiring firm’s business, and ⦁ be engaged in an independent business or trade.
Diner Chain Waffle House Underpaid Workers, Union Alleges in Federal Complaint
September 24, 2024 // According to the complaint, servers spent on average two to three hours of a seven-hour shift performing non-tipped work. The USSW estimates servers lose as much as $46.8 million in unpaid wages annually due to the alleged violations. These infractions are not uncommon in the industry: a 2012 Labor Department investigation of more than 9,000 restaurants found more than 84% of them violated tip credit rules, resulting in millions in lost wages.
Op-Ed: Union membership is now political. So can the government still require people to associate with a union?
July 10, 2024 // Since then, employees have argued that exclusive union representation does violate the First Amendment. Exclusivity saddles them with the “services” of nakedly political bargaining agents. Lower courts have turned those arguments aside mostly because of an older case, Minnesota Board for Community Colleges v. Knight, which suggested that exclusive representation was okay in the public sector. Knight seemed to say that when the government bargains about working conditions, it can choose its own bargaining partner. And if it chooses one exclusive union to bargain with, that choice burdens no one’s associational rights. But whether or not that’s what Knight meant, the decision has no bearing on private-sector bargaining. In the private sector, the government does not choose its own bargaining partner; it imposes one on private parties. And some of those parties object to their unions’ political views—views that are increasingly central to unionization itself. So private-sector bargaining raises a different question: can the government force private citizens to associate with a union when that union’s core purpose is increasingly political? (Elsewhere, I have argued at greater length that it cannot.)
RESEARCH: Minimum Wage Laws and App-Based Workers
March 30, 2024 // Rideshare apps are not too different. They generate revenue by taking a share of the total cost paid by riders to drivers. What is less clear is how large that fee is and how that fee has changed over time and across platforms. Rather than seeking out a rigid wage floor, a fee floor could stand in for the sense of fairness across platforms of different types. If workers on platforms are truly entrepreneurs, picking and choosing when, where, and how to allocate their labor across multiple platforms, doing more to ensure that markets offer a fair share of revenue can get the job done far more efficiently than attempting to mandate any particular amount.
Commentary: ATR Applauds House Education & Workforce Committee for Defending Independent Contractors
March 22, 2024 // “Independent contractors want to be their own boss. But Biden and the Democrats want to force them to HAVE a boss,” said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. Americans for Tax Reform applauds the House Education & Workforce Committee majority for passing Congressman Kiley’s resolution to nullify the Biden DOL’s harmful reclassification of independent contractors.
IWF Signs Independent Contracting Coalition Letter
March 18, 2024 //
Three New Regulations That Will Make It Harder to Serve the Needy
October 12, 2023 // In our Opportunity Playbook, we highlighted the Institute for the American Worker as an organization fighting for pro-labor policies that respect individual workers’ choices and freedom in the workforce. They join many others who are educating policymakers and regulators on how to ensure policies do not limit charitable organizations from serving communities.
Op-ed: Workers Rights Won by Unions, From the 8-Hour Workday to Overtime Pay
September 11, 2023 // The overall proportion of unionized workers in the United States remains relatively low, with only one in every 10 workers in the country belonging to a union. But whether you're a union worker or not, you may benefit from policies for which unions have fought long and hard — and they continue to fight. Labor organizing has helped secure everyday benefits that many of us now take for granted. And these efforts have shown people what kind of protections they can hope to secure in the workplace.
Sens. Braun, Burr, Thune, and Rep. Foxx Lead Republican Colleagues in Urging Department of Labor to Protect Independent Contractor Classification
December 19, 2022 // Senators Braun, Burr and Thune are leading a bicameral letter with Rep. Foxx (R-N.C.) urging the Department of Labor (DOL) not to move forward with its proposed rule for determining independent contractor classification due to the negative impact on workers and business, the test’s lack of clarity and the devastating consequences for the U.S. economy. They are joined by Sens. Hagerty, Romney, T. Scott, Cramer, Johnson, Barrasso, Cassidy, Lankford, Marshall, Hoeven, Blackburn, Boozman, Tuberville, Young, Lummis, Lee, R. Scott, Inhofe, Graham, Fischer, Ernst, Shelby, and Rounds as well as Reps. Wilson, Thompson, Walberg, Grothman, Stefanik, Allen, Banks, Comer, Fulcher, Keller, Miller-Meeks, Owens, Good, McClain, Harshbarger, Miller, Spartz, Fitzgerald, Steel, and Pete Sessions.