July 15, 2025
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Category: Disability, Accommodations, and Leaves

DOL Withdraws Biden-Era Proposal to End Subminimum Wage Program for Disabled Workers

The Department of Labor announced July 7 that it is withdrawing a proposed rule from the Biden Administration to end a program through which it issues certificates allowing employers to pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities in settings sometimes called sheltered workshops. The Biden-era DOL said the program is no longer necessary to motivate employers to hire people with significant disabilities because...
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July 14, 2025
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Category: Wage and Hour

DOL Won’t Request Liquidated Damages Under the FLSA Before Filing a Lawsuit

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has returned to its policy of not seeking liquidated damages in pre-litigation settlements of Fair Labor Standards Act claims. Under the FLSA, liquidated damages may effectively double the amount due to non-exempt employees for violations such as worker misclassification or off-the-clock work. Recent Democratic administrations sought liquidated damages, in addition to back pay, at...
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July 09, 2025
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Category: Wage and Hour

DOL Proposes Rescinding Obama-Era Rule That Narrowed FLSA Exemption for Companion Care Workers

The Department of Labor has proposed rolling back Obama-era changes to Fair Labor Standards Act regulations on companionship services. When domestic workers were brought under FLSA protections, Congress carved out an exemption for companionship care — defined as providing fellowship, care, and protection to seniors and individuals with disabilities.  The 2013 rule narrowed the exemption by limiting it to workers...
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July 09, 2025
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Category: Wage and Hour

DOL Proposes Removing Some FLSA Policy Statements and Interpretive Rules From Regulatory Code

The Department of Labor is proposing to move certain interpretive rules and policy statements related to the Fair Labor Standards Act from the Code of Federal Regulations to the Wage and Hour Division’s Field Operations Handbook. DOL says these provisions were never subject to notice-and-comment rulemaking.   The most significant provisions relate to the FLSA’s motor carrier exemption. Other impacted provisions relate to seafarers and...
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June 10, 2025
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Category: Agency Enforcement

Trump Seeks Significant Cuts to FY26 Budget of Workplace Regulators

President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 would eliminate the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and substantially cut funding for most agencies that regulate the workforce. The President submitted his budget request to Congress May 30. DOL’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) would assume OFCCP’s enforcement of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA,...
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May 07, 2025
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Category: Agency Enforcement

DOL Pauses Enforcement of Biden’s Independent Contractor Rule

The Labor Department (DOL) will no longer enforce the existing independent contractor rule, DOL announced May 1. Instead, when deciding whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, the Wage and Hour Division will rely on Fact Sheet #13 (which originated during President George W. Bush’s term), according to Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2025-1. The Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) minimum wage and...
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April 16, 2025
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Category: Congress

House Panel Advances Bills To Amend FLSA To Encourage Job-Related Training, Child Care Services

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has advanced two bills to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These bills would incentivize employers to offer voluntary job-related training and to provide overtime-eligible employees with child and dependent care benefits. H.R. 2262 would exclude time spent in after-hours training programs from hours worked, even if the training programs are job-related....
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April 09, 2025
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Category: Trump Administration

President Trump Nominates Andrew Rogers as Next Wage and Hour Chief

President Trump has nominated Andrew Rogers to serve as the next Administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. Rogers is currently the Acting General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Previously, he served as chief counsel to EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas and as a senior advisor at the Wage and Hour Division. Earlier in his career,...
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March 24, 2025
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Category: FLSA

Another Challenge to Biden Administration Independent Contractor Rule Dismissed

The Biden-era independent contractor rule has withstood yet another challenge, so it remains in effect, although the Trump Administration may eventually revisit this rule. Littman v. U.S. Department of Labor involves two freelance writers who challenged the Labor Department’s 2024 independent contractor rule. The rule applies a six-part economic reality test that makes it more likely that workers will be...
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March 19, 2025
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Category: Compensation

Trump Revokes Biden’s Federal Contractor Minimum Wage

A new executive order from President Trump on March 14 revoked the increase to the federal contractor minimum wage implemented by the Biden Administration. Trump’s order, entitled “Additional Rescissions Of Harmful Executive Orders And Actions,” revokes Biden’s E.O. 14026, which increased the minimum wage for covered federal contractors to $15 an hour beginning in 2022 with annual adjustments for inflation. The federal...
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