As predicted here, on February 19, the DOL formally withdrew gig-worker guidance from the Trump administration. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Administration ditched a pair of interpretative letters from 2019, including one that platform-based companies could have used as a legal defense against claims that their drivers are employees subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime provisions. The classification rules issued under the Trump DOL were widely viewed as business-friendly.
We will likely see more worker-protective interpretations of employee status during the Biden era (see more here). As such, we recommend working with counsel to perform a classification audit to review service provider agreements and ensure compliance.