Worker Policy Watch
Your source for accurate and reliable information on how federal policies are shaping workers’ rights—and what’s at stake for working people nationwide under the Trump administration.
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U.S. EEOC Will Meet to Rescind Workplace Harassment Guidance
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will meet on January 22 to consider the rescission of its guidance on workplace harassment. The Harassment Guidance is a critically important resource that helps ensure all workers can work safely and with dignity. Between FY 2016 and 2023, more than 1 in 3 discrimination charges received by the EEOC included an allegation of harassment based on race, gender, or other characteristics. The guidance was issued in 2024 following a notice and comment period, during which the EEOC received more than 38,000 comments.
Impact: The document provides much-needed updated guidance for the first time in nearly a quarter century. It reflects notable developments in the law and provides more than 70 examples of how the law applies to different factual scenarios, including harassment of survivors of gender-based violence, Black people and other people of color, teenagers, individuals with disabilities, immigrants, pregnant workers, and harassment of people online. Rescinding the Harassment Guidance will not alter workers’ rights under federal anti-discrimination laws, but getting rid of this resource will create confusion and make it harder for workers to enforce their right to be free from harassment in the workplace and for employers to understand their obligations.
In Power Grab, EEOC Rescinds Voting Procedures
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas and Commissioner Brittany Panuccio voted to rescind the commission’s voting procedures. These procedures formalized longstanding agency practice, like document circulation timelines and the right of any commissioner to agenda a public meeting before a commission vote could take place. Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal voted no, and her motions to delay the rescission or replace it with a temporary suspension were not agreed to.
Impact: This is the latest step in Lucas’s effort to reshape the EEOC from the bipartisan commission envisioned by Congress to an agency that carries out President Trump’s political agenda. Lucas has indicated that she plans to undermine civil rights protections by rolling back longstanding regulations and guidance, including the workplace harassment guidance, the EEO-1 data collection, guidance and regulations prohibiting unjustified discriminatory effects (disparate impact discrimination), and more. Centralizing her authority and removing opportunities for dissent and transparency are a step toward that goal. These changes harm all workers, particularly Black workers and other workers of color, women workers, LGBTQ workers, and workers with disabilities.
DOL Recovers $259 Million in Back Wages Despite Lower Overall Enforcement Efforts
An analysis of 2025 data shows the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has recovered $259 million in back pay while at the same time closing fewer cases against employers compared to the previous year.
Impact:
According to Wage and Hour compliance action data, DOL is concluding fewer compliance actions than it did in fiscal year 2024. The Trump administration's cuts to the federal workforce as well as a deregulatory policy agenda likely contributed to the reduction of enforcement actions, and many of the penalties recovered were originally levied under the Biden administration.
U.S. Department of Transportation Makes Renewed Deferred Resignation Offer to Employees
The U.S. Department of Transportation renewed its efforts to reduce its workforce through deferred resignation. This initiative targeted workers in the agency’s Office of Civil Rights and the Maritime Administration.
Impact:
The civil rights office enforces federal employment civil rights laws internally across the department, and externally for beneficiaries of the agency’s financial assistance. As part of a broader trend of degrading civil rights enforcement across the federal government, targeting this office for deferred resignations will likely lead to lower capacity to address instances of employment discrimination in these areas.
Trump Nominates Carter Crow to be EEOC General Counsel
President Trump nominated Carter Crow to be General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Crow is a Houston-based attorney whose career has focused on representing corporations in employment cases, with an emphasis on wage and hour claims. In a recent interview, Crow stated that he is “strongly supportive of all of the priorities” of EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas.
Impact: The EEOC general counsel plays a critical role in enforcing our federal civil rights laws in the workplace. EEOC Chair Lucas and Commissioner Panuccio have made it clear that they see President Trump, not the law, as their highest authority. They have followed Trump's lead in targeting LGBTQ workers, immigrant workers, and more. If confirmed, Carter Crow must follow the law and the agency’s mission, not Trump, Lucas, and Panuccio. The Senate must scrutinize Crow’s record and hold him accountable to that responsibility.
Black Women Disproportionately Impacted By Trump Administration Layoffs and Policy Changes
Around 300,000 Black women have exited the labor force in the U.S. in the past three months driven largely by layoffs and policy changes under the Trump administration, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics and other experts.
Impact:
In addition to the mass firings and layoffs of federal workers, the Trump administration’s crackdown on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility has changed the workforce landscape in the corporate world, leading to large numbers of Black women leaving the workforce.
DOL Wage and Hour Division Releases Opinion Letter re: Family and Medical Leave Act Calculations
DOL’s Wage and Hour Division releases opinion letter to clarify application of federal labor standards for calculating Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave for correctional law enforcement workers under a “Pitman schedule” of work.
Impact:
Wage and Hour Division opinion letter FMLA2025-02-A indicates that in determining the appropriate amount of an employee’s FMLA leave entitlement, an employer may convert the workweek to its hourly equivalent in a manner that equitably reflects the employee’s total normally scheduled hours.
DOL Wage and Hour Division Releases Opinion Letter re: Joint Employment
DOL’s Wage and Hour Division releases opinion letter to clarify application of federal labor standards for joint employment at a hotel’s “members club” and restaurant.
Impact:
Wage and Hour Division opinion letter FLSA-2025-05 indicates that both the restaurant and members club are jointly liable for all aspects of FLSA compliance for its joint employment staff.
DOL Wage and Hour Division Releases Opinion Letter re: Emergency Pay for Firefighters and City Workers
DOL’s Wage and Hour Division releases opinion letter to clarify application of federal labor standards for “emergency pay” for firefighters and other city employees and overtime pay.
Impact:
Wage and Hour Division opinion letter FLSA2025-04 indicates that emergency pay for firefighters and other city employees at issue does not qualify as a discretionary bonus that may be excluded from an employee’s regular rate of pay.
DOL Wage and Hour Division Releases Opinion Letter re: Oyster Shuckers Tip Pool
DOL’s Wage and Hour Division releases opinion letter to clarify application of federal labor standards for "front of house" oyster shuckers.
Impact:
Wage and Hour Division opinion letter FLSA2025-03 indicates that employers may require employees for whom the employer takes a tip credit to share tips in a tip pool with the front-of-house oyster shuckers.