Fake News
BREAKING: Biden Secretly Ordered A Policy That Will Crash Our Economy (Even More)
Biden’s activist Department of Labor (DOL) put out a proposed rule late last week which, if finalized, will have catastrophic impacts on the economy, the labor market and deepen the housing crisis.
Biden’s DOL is seeking to change how the department determines who is an employee and who is an independent contractor for the purposes of labor laws. The so-called “gig” rule was changed under President Trump’s administration to simplify the standard so that it could apply broadly across emerging industries. Biden’s DOL already tried to vacate Trump’s rule but a federal court ruled they had to actually do their job and go through the legal process to change the rule instead of simply pretending President Trump’s didn’t exist.
Here is how the new rule would change how “gig” or independent contractors are determined to be legitimate versus a de facto employee.
| Trump Rule (status quo) | New proposed Rule |
| 5 factors for determining “gig” versus “employee”2 factors heavily weighted: Control over work, opportunity for profit or loss based on personal investment | Six factors for determining “gig” versus “employee”Four of the six are new and the 2 from the Trump era will no longer be weightedNew factors: degree of permanence in the work relationshipextent to which the work performed is an integral part of the employers businessthe degree of skill and initiative exhibited by the workerThe rule also allows the DOL to consider “additional” undefined factors on a case by case basis with no set policy on what those factors may be |
This means that if the DOL lawyers think that someone’s contract services are core to the business of the organization who contracted them – they could (and likely will with Biden in charge) be considered employees.
The left is really trying to bill this rule as some snub to companies like Uber and Amazon. But those titans will be completely fine. In fact – Uber called the rule “measured” and won’t be opposing it. I wonder why they seem so cool if the rule was intended to cut down on the left’s perceived abuse of the “gig” system perpetrated allegedly by them? Really, what Biden doesn’t want you to know, is that the industry who is likely to take the biggest hit is homebuilding.
Nearly 20% of all “gig” workers are in the construction industry. Transportation (like Uber) makes up only 5% and retail (like Amazon) only 6.6%. The only industry to beat construction in the gig economy is professional services (like lawyers and lobbyists who will not be impacted by this rule for obvious reasons).
In the modern era, highly skilled workers in the homebuilding space (painters, plumbers, electricians, handymen, drywall, etc.) tend to operate as independent contractors for a variety of reasons including their ability to command higher earnings than as an employee. Under the new rule, general contracting operations may be faced with employing all of those speciality workers instead of contracting for them as needed in their projects. This will not only increase the cost to make homes, it will dampen the desire for contractors to even bother with the residential market further restricting the housing supply and even worsening price spikes.
Other industries that are likely to take major hits include industries that are already suffering from worker shortages like home health care, trucking, hospitality and restaurants.
And who would benefit from that? Joe Biden and his activist department of labor are trying to argue that the workers themselves would benefit. But economists and a 2018 study done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics disagree and believe the rule would harm independent contractors who often retain multiple clients and jobs and enjoy the flexibility of independence.
Who it would actually benefit is the labor unions. If a general contractor had to hire all employees they would all be subject to union requirements. The most powerful unions in the country such as the AFL-CIO would be direct monetary beneficiaries of this policy. The same unions who are annually the Democratic National Committees biggest donors. Which is a weird coincidence considering Seema Nanda, Biden’s chief labor lawyer in charge of this policy at DOL, was formerly the CEO of the DNC.
No one is talking about this rule because Biden doesn’t want you to know that he is willing to line the pockets of major labor unions at the expense of personal freedom and core industries which are already suffering under his disastrous economic policies.
The release of this rule is basically like Biden is saying: you know what would make life better? Less houses on the market, less operators in the food and energy supply chain, less health care professionals and if all of those things were way more expensive.
