May 6, 2021<\/p>\n
Media contact: National Consumers League \u2013 Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org<\/a>,\u00a0(412) 945-3242<\/a>\u00a0or Taun Sterling,\u00a0tauns@nclnet.org<\/a>,\u00a0(202)\u00a0207-2832<\/a><\/p>\n Washington, DC\u2014The National Consumers League (NCL), America\u2019s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, welcomes yesterday\u2019s withdrawal of the Trump Administration\u2019s \u201cIndependent Contractor Rule,\u201d\u00a0which would have too narrowly defined\u00a0who is an \u201cemployee\u201d under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).<\/p>\n “The Trump Administration\u2019s ‘Independent Contractor Rule’ would have been bad for American workers, especially women and those who toil in low-wage industries. It would have made it easier to classify workers like construction workers, farmworkers, Uber- and Lyft- drivers, janitors, and care givers as ‘independent contractors,’ denying them the rights and benefits ’employees’ have. It would have left workers already vulnerable to wage theft and safety risks even more at risk,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg.<\/p>\n In its announcement about the impending rule\u2019s withdrawal, the U.S. Department of Labor noted that the FLSA requires employees be paid \u201cat least the federal minimum wage for every hour they work and overtime compensation at not less than one-and-one half times their regular rate of pay for every hour over 40 in a work week.\u201d Withdrawing the new rule preserves these essential worker rights and other protections granted by the FLSA.<\/p>\n DOL rightfully noted that independent contractor designations are not necessary to provide workers with flexible hours\u2014something proponents of the new rule had suggested. \u201cEmployment and flexibility are not mutually exclusive,\u201d said DOL.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n About the National Consumers League<\/strong><\/p>\n The\u00a0National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America\u2019s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit\u00a0www.nclnet.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Trump Administration\u2019s ‘Independent Contractor Rule’ would have been bad for American workers, especially women and those who toil in low-wage industries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[419,275,279,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19345"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19347,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19345\/revisions\/19347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}