Trump's labor regulations creating clarity for employers: Eugene Scalia
'We needed to bring some clarity and rationality to this area in the wake of the confusion that had risen during the last administration'
Americans will feel the impact of a new regulation coming online in March intended to clarify the responsibility employers have when they share employees.
Currently, when an employee is working for a company at a particular job site but was hired by and has his pay determined by another company, it is costly for both of them to ensure record keeping and employer obligations are done correctly, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia told FOX Business’ Dagen McDowell on “Mornings with Maria.”
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“We really felt we needed to bring some clarity and rationality to this area in the wake of the confusion that had risen during the last administration,” Scalia said.
The Trump administration’s new plan focuses on “wage-hour obligations” as opposed to union rights like the Obama administration, according to Scalia. It categorizes joint employment as existing when two employers are “not completely disassociated” from each other, Scalia and Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney explained in their Wall Street Journal article.
“Companies will now have greater certainty about the point at which they’re affecting the terms and conditions of employment to such a degree that they’re an employer, responsible for ensuring employees receive the minimum wage and overtime pay,” they explained in the same article.
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This rule change comes as the U.S. economy is seeing its best performance seen in 50 years, according to Scalia. Continued deregulation, he argued, is an important part of delivering African Americans, Hispanic Americans and adult women the lowest unemployment numbers they have ever seen.
The December 2019 jobs report indicated unemployment held steady 3.5 percent as 145,000 jobs were added during the course of the month — falling short of the 164,000-job expectation — while average hourly earnings rose by 2.9 percent, FOX Business reported.
“During the Obama administration, the faster wage gains were among the top 10 percent of wage earners," Scalia said. "We’ve flipped that. Now, the fastest wage gains are among the bottom 10 percent.”
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In terms of women’s participation in the labor markets, Scalia suggested that by enforcing current discrimination laws and using apprenticeship programs, women can move into professions they historically have not pursued.
“When you look at the number of different measures of how the economy is doing, it’s some people who had less opportunity historically who are some of the really big beneficiaries right now,” Scalia concluded.