Posts tagged Trump Administration
Freelance Busting: The ABC Test Defense
April 22, 2026 // And perhaps most important, according to all of the oral testimony and thousands of written public comments submitted to New Jersey’s Labor Department, there are zero people being unknowingly classified as independent contractors. You can download and read here the eight (yes, only eight out of about 9,500) public comments that individuals supporting the proposed rule change filed. Not a single one of them says the person was unknowingly working as an independent contractor.
Op-ed: Congressional Republicans Should Unshackle Entrepreneurs
April 16, 2026 // Efforts to restore clearer regulations around contractor standards recognize these realities. However, a future administration can scuttle any regulation its Labor Department issues. Legislative clarity solves that problem, and Congress has a vehicle to provide it. The Modern Worker Empowerment Act clarifies standards for independent work, protecting legitimate independent businesses while preserving safeguards against worker misclassification. A law, duly passed and signed, means real, future-proofed certainty for entrepreneurs, freelancers and the organizations that rely on them.
Potas: Trump cut federal employees — and the system didn’t break
April 14, 2026 // The federal workforce is smaller than at any point since the 1960s, the result of a deliberate effort by the Trump administration. Critics have asked how many employees the federal government can lose before it breaks. So far, the answer appears to be more than a 10% reduction. Most of the cuts were in white-collar roles: administrative, accounting and human resources.
Commentary: Congress is about to undo DOGE’s biggest win
April 13, 2026 // That corrupt flow of campaign cash into Congress’s coffers is ultimately why, instead of being eliminated by DOGE, the FMCS is on track to be given a whole new set of powers. New Jersey Democrat Donald Norcross recently filed a discharge petition on the Faster Labor Contracts Act. The petition will force the House to vote on the bill once it reaches 218 signatures. The bill can easily hit that target if all 214 House Democrats sign the petition, along with any four of the bill’s 17 Republican cosponsors. Understanding a politician’s real priorities often requires zooming into these quiet battles over little-known agencies.
Chicago teachers want no school on May Day, testing the city’s mayor and school leaders
April 12, 2026 // “What our students need, and what history teaches us is the only thing that works, is educators, labor unions, and community groups standing together to defend each other and our democracy and demand that the government put our families over their fortunes,” the CTU said in a statement. This week, Macquline King, the newly-named district CEO, said she had no plans to cancel class.
Federal Crackdown Nets 8 Arrests in Southern California Health Care Fraud Schemes
April 8, 2026 // Federal officials have arrested 8 people in the Los Angeles area for their alleged involvement in various health care fraud schemes totaling $50 million. The cases include fraudulent billing for hospice services, defrauding a labor union's health plans, and forging immigration medical documents.
S.F. begins to lay off 127 workers as Mayor Lurie takes ‘painful but necessary’ steps to close deficit
April 8, 2026 // Among the 18 departments affected by the layoffs are the departments of public health and economic and workforce development. The City Administrator’s Office and the Human Services Agency are also affected, as are civilian roles in the Police Department. It wasn’t immediately clear exactly how many jobs were being eliminated from every affected department. The layoffs are likely to further inflame tensions between Lurie and some of the city’s most dominant public-sector labor unions. He already had a major disagreement with those groups over Proposition D, a June ballot measure they are pushing to raise taxes on companies with highly-paid executives.
Commentary: Freelancers are not victims. Federal regulations should stop victimizing us
April 7, 2026 // The Trump 2026 IC rule follows the framework of the Trump 2021 IC rule, but applies modifications to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act (MSPA). The modifications narrow previously broad language on what constitutes an “employee,” while delineating that independent contractors are not employees. The 2026 IC rule further nullifies the six-factor “economic reality” test housed in the 2024 Biden IC rule.
Commentary: The Labor Department Just Freed Contractors—Again. Congress Still Needs To Act.
April 6, 2026 // Fortunately, at the state level, more durable change is happening. Rather than trying to reclassify workers as employees, numerous states have begun experimenting with what's known as a portable benefits model. Under this framework, independent contractors in the gig economy are given access to SEP IRA–style accounts in which both they and gig companies can contribute. The funds from these accounts follow the contractors from job to job, rather than being tied to a single company, and they can be used for benefits like health insurance, retirement funds, or paid time off.
General Strike to Take Place Nationwide on April 5: Here’s What Is Impacted
April 2, 2026 // The General Strike 2026 movement describes itself as a decentralized, grassroots campaign made up of unions, organizations, and individual participants rather than a single centralized leadership structure. Organizers emphasize that the campaign doesn’t require registration and doesn’t collect personal data or information from participants. The website also states that the group will not publish a list of collaborating organizations—positioning the strike as participant‑driven and flexible in how people choose to engage. Updates and organizing materials are shared primarily through social media channels, blog posts, and downloadable flyers that supporters are encouraged to distribute at protests, marches, or community events.