All Eyes on Tomorrow
On January 20, Governor Murphy's term ends. Here's how his team may—or may not—finalize New Jersey's independent-contractor rule on their way out.
Tomorrow is a big day in my home state of New Jersey. All the headlines will be about Governor Phil Murphy’s time in office coming to an official end, and about Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill being sworn in to take over the top job.
But there’s another thing happening tomorrow in New Jersey that is not likely to make any headlines—even though it’s of deep importance to independent contractors statewide.
January 20 is also the last day of the Murphy administration—not the last day overall, but the last day of the Murphy administration—that the proposed independent-contractor rule at the Department of Labor & Workforce Development could be finalized with publication in the New Jersey Register.
A lot of us are intently waiting to see whatever will, or will not, be in those pages of the New Jersey Register. Because either way, if a final rule is published or if it’s not, whatever happens tomorrow will in turn affect whatever is going to happen next.
The Process
As you can see below from New Jersey’s Office of Administrative Law, the deadline was in December for Murphy’s Labor Department to submit the final version of the independent-contractor rule in time to be published tomorrow in the New Jersey Register:
If the Labor Department did not submit a final version of the proposed rule for publication tomorrow—if we do not see a final version published in the January 20 New Jersey Register—then a few things could happen next.
The rule could remain in proposal form, still able to be finalized, for several more months. It would roll over into the Sherrill administration for her to do with it as she pleases. Generally speaking, New Jersey rule proposals are good for one year before they expire. While this rule proposal was publicly announced in late April, its technical date of proposal is May 5. This means the proposed rule, as it’s written right now, could remain out there as a proposal until this spring.
We could see a substantially changed rule published in tomorrow’s New Jersey Register. That would mean another public comment process must begin. I haven’t heard anyone in Trenton circles say they expect this to happen, if only because there already are about 9,500 written public comments on file at the Labor Department, with 99% of them opposed to the proposal. So much is wrong about what’s being attempted here that it seems suicidal for politicians to provoke an even bigger and angrier public response.
The Sherrill administration could come in and respect the clearly demonstrated will of the people, and rescind the proposal altogether. Fully rescinding the rule is something that many, many people (including yours truly) have been calling for all along. As the New Jersey Business & Industry Association’s chief government affairs officer, Chris Emigholz, put it a couple weeks ago: “There’s only one, clear best option—and that is to simply reject it on the merits that it’s legally flawed, economically unsound, procedurally deficient, and socially regressive.” I would add that given the scope of the public opposition, rescinding the rule would also be most aligned with what Governor-elect Sherrill has been saying about her desire to create a government that is more accountable to the people.
Now, on the other hand, if we do see a final rule published tomorrow—if the Murphy administration tries to finalize it as one last act of freelance busting on its way out of town—then the next thing that is all but certain to happen is attorneys filing lawsuits against the state. I’m aware of numerous law firms already circling and making plans in the background.
And, hopefully, we’d also see immediate pushback from within the Legislature to pass the Senate and Assembly concurrent resolutions that would overturn this rulemaking. Two dozen legislators have publicly voiced concerns about this rulemaking, meaning there should be a strong base of bipartisan support to protect the state’s estimated 1.7 million independent contractors from this madness.
I’m pleased to say that those concurrent resolutions—known in the last legislative session as SCR138 and ACR177—are already in the process of being reintroduced. The new number for the 2026-27 legislative session on the Senate version is SCR62.
Notably, a top legislative aide in this policy area told me the Legislature hasn’t passed this type of concurrent resolution to overturn rulemaking since the administration of Governor Chris Christie.
But then again, longtime Trenton observers who are watching what’s happening with independent-contractor policy say they haven’t seen this kind of public opposition to any rule proposal in more than 30 years.
Talk about a great time to start fresh and be fully on the side of the people.
Sherrill's a democrat; she will want to pass the independent contractor rule. They have learned nothing from the debacle in CA.