Biden Department of Labor Independent Worker Rule Will Hurt Latino Workers

The LIBRE Initiative, the largest center-right Hispanic organization, issued a statement opposing the Biden administration’s plans to issue a final U.S. Department of Labor rule that will make it more difficult for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors.

According to one study, around 70 million Americans would fall under the classification of independent contractors or freelance workers. Additionally, 50 percent of Latinos engage in independent work

Isabel Soto, Policy Director of The LIBRE Initiative, issued the following statement in response to this proposed rule change:

“Make no mistake, if the Biden administration follows through on enacting this rule change, millions of Latinos will be negatively impacted. 

For one, the worker flexibility that millions of Latinos value is at risk, as evidenced in other states that have enacted similar heavy-handed policies. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the possibility that businesses may cut hours or lay off independent workers is a real possibility. 

Both would come at a terrible time when many Latinos are struggling to make ends meet while fighting inflation.

This rule change must be seen as a blatant example of an administration out of ideas and needing to circumvent Congress to enact heavy-handed one-size-fits-all policies that benefit special interest groups over the needs of workers who value worker flexibility and worker freedom.”

Background

Click here to read an op-ed by Rep. Kevin Kiley, who serves as the U.S. Representative for California’s 3rd District and is chair of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee – and Isabel Soto, who is the director of policy for The LIBRE Initiative about American workers struggling to work to earn a living because of burdensome regulations.

Excerpt from the op-ed here:

“The right to earn a living is at the heart of the American Dream. In a free society, few rights are more fundamental — or more essential to a dynamic and prosperous economy. Generations of Americans have depended upon this right: the right to practice your profession and pursue your calling; to be a maker, a builder, a creator; to pursue happiness in your own way.

Yet at this moment, that right is in peril. The Biden administration has launched a multi-pronged assault on the right to earn a living in America. It is a concerted strategy designed to limit or eliminate the gig economy, freelancing, independent contracting, self-employment, and alternate work arrangements that entire careers are based on and entire industries have been built around. The livelihoods of millions of Americans are at risk.”