Dive Brief:
- Federal agencies released their semi-annual regulatory agendas July 20, offering insight into their plans for the next few months and beyond. The U.S. Department of Labor listed 38 short-term goals, which include plans to replace the overtime rule, rescind tip pool regulations and continue with its second look at OSHA’s electronic recordkeeping rule.
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission focused mostly on internal processes and public-sector workers. DOL's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs was not mentioned, so Obama-era nondiscrimination rules and hiring goals for contractors will remain untouched for now.
- The agenda also included a long-term to-do list, which, for DOL, announced plans to update regulations that allow certain employers to pay workers with disabilities less than minimum wage. EEOC did not release a long-term plan.
Dive Insight:
The agency already began the rulemaking process for the overtime regulations, finalizing a Request for Information that is likely to be published in the Federal Register any day. Once published, stakeholders will be able to send comments to DOL. The next step is a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking but the regulatory agenda doesn’t say when that might happen. DOL also needs to clear a few more hurdles in a lawsuit challenging the former administration’s version of the regs.
It appears that DOL will rescind — without replacing — tip pool regs that it adopted in 2011. The regulations prohibit employers from setting up tip-sharing arrangements that include workers who don’t typically receive gratuities. Employers have challenged the rules in court several times, with some success. One employer has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in; DOL has until Sept. 8 to respond to that request but it says it will rescind the regs by the end of August.
DOL’s agenda didn’t contain any major unexpected items, but it includes an ambitious timeline considering its Wage and Hour Division is without a leader and other key posts at DOL are vacant, and could remain so for months to come.
