The Department of Labor (DoL) has been prolific in using its rulemaking abilities to protect workers and increase wages while using its investigative and enforcement authority to hold bad corporate actors accountable. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, but highlights major victories in increasing overtime pay, addressing misclassification of employees as independent contractors, and cracking down on widespread illegal use of child labor.
Rulemaking:
- Rescinded Trump’s definition of independent contractors and replaced it with a more stringent rule to prevent employees from being misclassified.
- Rolled back Trump-era tip regulations and removed limits on the DoL’s ability to levy fines against employers for tip violations. The new rule also prevented managers from controlling and taking a share of tip pools.
- Increased the overtime pay threshold for salary workers to $43,888 along with automatic increases for 2025 and every three years thereafter. Under the previous rule instituted by Trump in 2019, salaried workers earning more than $35,568 per year were not eligible for overtime pay.
- Proposed a rule titled Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Setting, which would set clear employer obligations regarding heat hazards and require employers to have plans to protect employees from unsafe heat.
- Revised rule to strengthen protections for agricultural workers and enhance the enforcement capabilities to prevent fraud and exploitation under H-2A visas.
- Updated regulations under Davis-Bacon Act, including a revision to the definition of “prevailing wage” that will result in higher pay for construction workers.
Enforcement Actions:
- The DoL’s Wage and Hour Division issued $26 million in fines in 2023, the highest level of monetary enforcement in a decade. The Division also returned $212.3 million in back wages.
- Settled a case with Dollar General that included $12 million in penalties and ensured corporate-wide improvements to employee safety.
- Won nearly $1 million in back wages for Subway employees after the company was found guilty of violating child labor laws, failing to pay employees on time, and stealing tips. The owners of the offending Subway locations were ordered to sell or shut down their businesses.
- The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined Trader Joe’s $216,902 for violating safety standards by failing to adequately provide training for forklift operators and failing to inspect forklifts.
- OSHA fined three Amazon warehouses $46,875 for unsafe working conditions that “exposed warehouse workers to a high risk of low back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders.”
- Fined Packers Sanitation Services $1.5 million for illegally employing 100 children, including to handle hazardous chemicals and clean meat processing equipment.
- Sued Hyundai for its extensive use of child labor in an Alabama facility. In one instance, a 13 year old girl allegedly worked 50-60 hours a week in an auto parts supplier facility.
- Fined manufacturer Tuff Torq Corp., which makes power equipment parts for John Deere and Yamaha, $296,951 for use of child labor in a Tennessee factory. The company also had to set aside $1.5 million for the 10 child laborers.
Corporate Pushback:
- The International Franchise Association, a trade association for franchisor chains that has fought minimum wage and joint employer laws, opposed Julie Su as Labor Secretary.
- A swath of trade association groups, including the Associated Builders and Contractors and the National Association of Convenience Stores, filed a lawsuit challenging the DoL’s updated overtime pay threshold.
- The Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit challenging the DoL’s stricter definition of independent contractors.
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