18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies · Notable
Restore the 2019 and 2021 independent contractor rules
Printed page 591 18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies
“NLRB and DOL should return to their 2019 and 2021 independent contractor rules that provided much-needed clarity for workers and employers.”
What has happened
- Attempted
The Wage and Hour Division proposed to rescind the 2024 independent contractor analysis at 29 CFR part 795 and replace it with the analysis adopted in the Department's January 7, 2021 final rule "with a few modifications", and to extend that analysis to the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. A proposed rule: part 795 still carries the 2024 test. The NLRB half of the ask has not moved at all — the Board's 2019 SuperShuttle standard, overruled in Atlanta Opera (2023), has not been restored and the General Counsel's published list of precedents she intends to challenge does not include it.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Two-object ask (NLRB and DOL) and neither object is delivered, so the ladder governs and the item is attempted, not partial (§3b, the #2125 pattern).
- The Quote names the “2019 and 2021” rules. 2021 is DOL’s Independent Contractor Status Under the FLSA rule (86 FR 1168), which the NPRM would restore; 2019 is the NLRB’s SuperShuttle DFW decision, which is a Board adjudication rather than a rule and would have to be restored by the Board.
- General Counsel memorandum GC 26-04 (2026-08-26) lists the precedents the General Counsel has asked or intends to ask the Board to revisit; independent contractor status is not among them. https://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d4584351740
- Action
- reinstate
- Object
- 2019 and 2021 independent contractor rules
- ID
- 1624