{"id":134884,"date":"2025-03-15T09:16:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T09:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/legal\/toast-trump-dol-signals-an-end-to-the-2024-biden-independent-contractor-rule-who-is-my-employee\/"},"modified":"2025-03-15T09:16:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T09:16:53","slug":"toast-trump-dol-signals-an-end-to-the-2024-biden-independent-contractor-rule-who-is-my-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=134884","title":{"rendered":"Toast! Trump DOL Signals an End to the 2024 Biden Independent Contractor Rule \u2013 Who Is My Employee?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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This Thursday, Feb 27 marks National Toast Day<\/a>, an important annual celebration that commemorates this versatile form of bread. Toast for breakfast? Toast for brunch? Snack? PB&J? Is there anything toast can\u2019t<\/em> do?<\/p>\n

National Toast Day is celebrated on the last Thursday of February each year, which means that this year it overlaps with<\/a> National Polar Bear Day, National Strawberry Day, and National Kahlua Day.<\/p>\n

Put all those things together and you\u2019ve got one helluva picnic.<\/p>\n

But why do I mention toast? Because of independent contractor classification tests, of course. Here\u2019s what I mean.<\/p>\n

Remember the 2024 DOL independent contractor rule \u2014 you know, the one that the Biden DOL passed in January 2024<\/a>? We hardly had a chance to get acquainted.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you something that won\u2019t surprise you. The Trump Administration is likely going to rescind it. Or maybe ignore it. Or maybe allow a court to reject it. One way or another, it\u2019s gonna be toast.<\/p>\n

There are several lawsuits challenging the 2024 rule, and one of them \u2014 Frisard\u2019s Transportation v. US DOL<\/em> \u2014 was scheduled for oral argument at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in early February.<\/p>\n

The DOL, however, asked the court to postpone oral argument to allow it time to consider how it wants to proceed. How it wanted<\/em> to proceed under Biden was to defend the rule. Now, not so much.<\/p>\n

However the case proceeds, we can expect that the Trump DOL will not apply the Biden Administration\u2019s independent contractor test.<\/p>\n

So what does that mean for the independent contractor test?<\/p>\n

In reality, not much.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because, first, the rule applied only to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which is the federal wage and hour statute. It didn\u2019t apply to tax law, benefits law, labor law, unemployment or workers\u2019 comp law, or any state law. <\/p>\n

And second, the test for who is an employee under the FLSA has always been an Economic Realities Test, and courts know what that test is. Every circuit court has a long line of case law describing the Economic Realities test. The courts don\u2019t need the Biden or Trump Administration to tell them how to interpret the FLSA. The FLSA has been on the book since the 1930s, back when Biden and Trump were mere teenagers.<\/p>\n

So what does this mean for employers? Again, not much. Employers should assume that under federal wage and hour law, the test for whether someone is an employee or independent contractor is the same as it has been for decades.<\/p>\n

This anticipated change is not really going to change anything at all.<\/p>\n

Now, if instead of toast, the Trump Administration made the rule into Kahlua, that would seem to be worth celebrating.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

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