Trump Labor Policy

Trump Labor Policy  by Noam Scheiber via NYT:

In June, Labor Secretary R. Alexander Acosta announced the withdrawal of two prominent Obama administration guidances — documents that do not change the law but indicate how a department interprets it and can influence employers.

The first had clarified when a worker could be classified as an independent business operator as opposed to an employee, who is covered by protections like the minimum wage and overtime pay. The Obama approach suggested that many so-called gig-economy companies were improperly treating workers as independent contractors when in fact they were largely dependent on the companies for their livelihood.
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The second guidance had laid out when a company could be considered a so-called joint employer — meaning that it shared responsibility for a worker alongside a contractor, staffing agency or franchisee — and could therefore be held liable for infractions those other companies committed.
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The administration’s entrepreneurial ethos is also reflected in its posture toward another rule: the requirement that employers pay workers a time-and-a-half rate for overtime if their salary falls below a certain threshold.
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