GOP Spending Bill Keeps Trump-Era DOL Indie Contractor Rule Alive

Public Citizen says the appropriations rider would also include any attempts to block the rule still being finalized by Labor designed to “replace the previous one with clearer protections from misclassification for workers.”

Labor’s most recent regulatory agenda lists the final rule as coming in August.

Dale Brown, FSI’s president and CEO, said in January that Labor’s new independent contractor rule shows Labor doesn’t “understand the independent advisor model and gig economy workers — these are professionals that own their own businesses, own their own practices. They chose to be independent.”

Brown said Labor’s new independent contractor rule “is a big step backwards,” and remains “a major issue” for FSI. “We have engaged that fight and it will continue.”

On Monday in an email, an FSI spokesperson reiterated that the 2021 independent contractor rule “provides workers and businesses, particularly the independent financial services industry, with the much needed clarity regarding workers’ classification.”

The pending Labor rule “would create uncertainty regarding many financial advisors’ independent contractor status, impose burdensome costs on independent financial services firms and, ultimately, impact Main Street Americans’ access to affordable, professional financial advice,” FSI said. “Our financial advisor members have chosen to be independent contractors, with many having switched from an employee-based model, and we support efforts that protect advisors’ ability to make that choice.”

Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, along with Tim Scott, R-S.C., and John Thune, R-S.D., introduced in April the Employee Rights Act of 2023, which they say would protect independent contractors and clarify the definition of “employee.”