'Streamlined Regulations'

The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a rule to clarify employee, independent contractor status under federal wage and hour laws.

Editor’s Note: The U.S. Department of Labor is currently facing five lawsuits over the Biden-Harris administration’s independent-contractor rule. I am a plaintiff in one of those cases.

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Today, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a proposed rule to determine employee versus independent-contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act and related federal laws.

According to the U.S. Labor Department’s press release, the proposed rule would rescind the department’s 2024 final rule addressing the classification of independent contractors and replace it with an analysis for employee classification similar to the one adopted by the department in 2021. Consistent with Supreme Court and federal circuit court precedent, the proposed rule would make it easier to properly differentiate between employees with the protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act and those workers who work as independent contractors.

“The tens of millions of Americans who work as independent contractors are helping drive the Golden Age of the American economy,” Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer stated in the press release. “The department’s proposed rule seeks to protect these workers’ entrepreneurial spirit and simplify compliance for American job creators navigating a modern workplace, all while maintaining robust protections for employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

Public comments are invited on the proposed rule, which has a 60-day comment period that closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on April 28, 2026.