Posts tagged Julie Su
A New Law Could Affect Your Retirement Side Hustle Income
April 10, 2024 // Kavin owns her own freelance writing and editing business in New Jersey and leads Fight For Freelancers USA, a nonpartisan coalition of freelancers from across the country that spans professions from translation to interior design. Around 20% of group members are ages 55 to 64 and nearly 10% are age 65 and older. Some members turned to freelancing after suffering age discrimination that cost them a traditional job, says Kavin. "They still want to work and earn, and the way they're able to do it is as independent contractors," she says. Kavin says she does well as a freelancer and does not want a traditional job, even if she could find one at her age. "It's a lot harder to find a traditional job in your 50s than in your 30s, especially one with the significantly higher level of income that I've been able to achieve as a freelancer," she says. "If I lose this self-employed business that I just spent 20 years building up, there may be no other place for me to go."
What the Biden Administration Could Learn From California’s Attempt To Ban Independent Contracting
April 8, 2024 // In other words, the president promised to replicate AB 5 nationally but has failed. I can only surmise that the Los Angeles Times doesn't pay much attention to California news, either. As noted above, AB 5 isn't the victim of Congress or industry—but of massive, angry blowback from California freelancers, many of them Democrats—in multiple professions who didn't appreciate losing their jobs. The story focused on San Francisco's settlement with a company that connects workers with hospitality industry jobs, so AB 5 is still wreaking havoc. The most aggravating part of the Times article cites a study from the pro-union Economic Policy Institute, which finds "blue-collar workers classified as contractors are losing out on as much as $16,700 a year compared with what they would have made as regular employees." Perhaps it should show how much money these workers are losing when companies axe their jobs because of the AB 5-style mandates. When it comes to economics, union think tanks, reporters, and the Biden administration are as clever as those proverbial worms.
Foxx, Good Bring DOL Chief Lawyer into Dead Teamsters Pension Overpayment Investigation
April 4, 2024 // “The Committee recognizes that, as Solicitor of Labor, you are the principal counsel to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, who also serves as the acting chair of PBGC’s Board of Directors… The Committee is interested in what advice and legal interpretations you and SOL have provided to PBGC regarding its legal authority to recapture these overpayments from both before and after DOL’s publication of its statement.” The letter continues: “In addition, the Committee understands that SOL could play a role in how PBGC responds to inquiries from Congress and the public. Unfortunately, despite multiple inquiries, PBGC’s responses have been unacceptably incomplete. PBGC’s failure to provide full and forthright information is obstructing the Committee’s ability to consider H.R. 7135, the Ghost Handouts and Overpayments Stop Today Act (GHOST Act), or similar legislation to ensure PBGC meets its obligation to reclaim any overpayment it made in the SFA program.”
Labor employees show up to protest for more telework
April 3, 2024 // Ernst and Franklin wrote to Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su seeking more details about what the protest cost the department. “Clearly, these employees know how much more effective they can be when they show up in person. We just wish they had the same level of dedication to serving Americans that they do to serving themselves,” the lawmakers wrote. “As White House Chief of Staff [Jeff] Zients said in January, agencies are still ‘not where they need to be’ on returning employees to the office. If your employees can show up to the office to protest, they can show up to the office to work.” Ernst and Franklin want Su to respond to answers to three questions by April 10: How much taxpayer-funded union time did representatives of AFGE Local 948 log with the Department of Labor (DOL) in the four weeks preceding their rally on March 19, 2024? Were the DOL employees paid—either through taxpayer-funded union time reimbursements or otherwise—for their protest against returning to the office, which they staged at their office? If so, what is the cost to the DOL including but not limited to labor and resources—of this protest?
Stalled Labor Pick Julie Su Lets Herself Off the Hook for California’s Missing Billions
April 2, 2024 // California’s auditor notes that the U.S. Department of Labor has issued helpful “guidance” for state finance officials in “Unemployment Insurance Program Letter 05-24.” Flip over to the U.S. Department of Labor’s DOL 05-24 letter and you learn what Julie Su is up to. The DOL memo says a Covid-era agreement between the feds and state unemployment departments “required states to use the CARES Act funds ‘for the purpose for which the money was paid to the state’ and to ‘take such action as reasonably may be necessary to recover for the account of the United States all benefit amounts erroneously paid and restore any lost or misapplied funds paid to the state for benefits or the administration of the Agreement.” But how will the federal DOL know whether states took “such action as reasonably necessary to recover” the billions stolen by fraudsters? Because the states will tell them so, or, as the DOL put it in inimitable Orwellian language: “Applying state finality laws to the CARES Act UC programs means that, in many instances, the state will not need to take retroactive action to resolve monitoring findings.”
Whitmer joined by Granholm, Slotkin and Fain to announce EV battery training program
March 27, 2024 // “To bring together this front row here of just, I’m sorry, bad asses,” said Slotkin to laughter from the crowd. “I have to say the beauty of being a legislator is when you get to see the stuff that you vote on, actually matter in your own district, in your own state.” The stuff to which Slotkin was referring was the $5 million investment by the Department of Energy for the Battery Workforce Initiative that will, according to a release, “support up to five pilot training programs in energy and automotive communities and advance workforce partnerships between industry and labor for the domestic lithium battery supply chain.” While the $5 million is just a small fraction of the $1.2 bipartisan infrastructure bill signed by Biden in 2021, Whitmer said it was a key piece of the strategy to keep the U.S., as well as Michigan, at the forefront of electric vehicle manufacturing.
Opinion: New Labor rule will harm freelance work under the guise of helping workers
March 22, 2024 // In crafting solutions, it is crucial to maintain a focus on protecting vulnerable workers while also supporting innovation and maintaining the flexibility that has become a hallmark of the American economy. Collaborative efforts between businesses, labor organizations, and policymakers can pave the way for regulations that uphold fair labor standards without shutting down economic growth and individual autonomy.
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.
Gig Workers Need Flexibility, Not More Rules | Opinion
March 20, 2024 // Su and the Biden administration are missing one important thing, however: most contract workers don't want those protections. Or rather, they consider the reward of the contract work and compensation to be greater than the risk of not having the traditional protections a full-time employee might enjoy. Many contract workers also work full-time jobs that offer said protections. The gig economy has exploded in the last two decades. Before the pandemic, it was estimated to employ 36 percent of American workers, or about 57.2 million people. Statistics from last year suggest there are over 73 million freelancers in the U.S.
IWF Signs Independent Contracting Coalition Letter
March 18, 2024 //