Workers

The right to organize.
A living wage. Real benefits.

Union membership is at historic lows. The federal minimum wage hasn't changed since 2009. Gig workers are classified as "contractors" to deny them basic protections. Wage theft costs workers more annually than all property crime combined. This ends.

What's Happening Now

The war on workers has been winning.

For forty years. It's time to fight back.

$7.25

Federal minimum wage - unchanged since 2009, the longest stretch without an increase in FLSA history. In real terms it is at its lowest since 1956.

10%

Union membership rate - down from 35% in the 1950s. The collapse of union density and the rise of economic inequality are not a coincidence.

$50B+

Stolen from workers annually through wage theft - more than all property crime combined. The Wage and Hour Division recovers a fraction of it.

69%

Increase in children found illegally employed in violation of FLSA between 2018 and 2022 - including in slaughterhouses, automotive plants, and glass factories.

Why This Happened

The assault on workers was written down - in advance.

Project 2025's labor chapter was written by former Department of Labor officials who served under the first Trump administration. It is explicit about its goals: roll back overtime protections, gut OSHA enforcement, narrow the legal definition of "concerted activity" under the NLRA to make organizing harder, promote employer-designed apprenticeship programs that bypass union-negotiated standards, and reverse independent contractor classification rules that protect gig workers. These are not budget adjustments. They are a coordinated dismantling of the legal architecture that separates a civilized labor market from exploitation.

The Department of Labor oversees more than 180 federal laws covering approximately 10 million employers and 125 million workers. Project 2025 treated every one of those protections as a cost to be eliminated rather than a right to be protected. OSHA - the agency responsible for workplace safety - was cut to the point where it operates with roughly one inspector per 6,000 workplaces. NIOSH, the research agency that provides the scientific foundation for OSHA standards, was reduced from approximately 1,400 scientists to fewer than 150. The NLRB was systematically underfunded and its General Counsel replaced with someone whose stated mission was to narrow the agency's enforcement authority.

Meanwhile, the conditions Project 2025 targeted were already severe. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 - unchanged since 2009 - is worth 40% less in real terms than in 1968. The illegal employment of children surged 69% between 2018 and 2022, with children working in hazardous occupations the law explicitly prohibits. Wage theft - employers stealing wages from workers through tip theft, off-the-clock work requirements, and illegal deductions - costs workers an estimated $50 billion annually, while the Wage and Hour Division recovers barely $273 million. The United States is the only developed nation that provides no federal paid family leave.

These conditions are the consequence of political choices. They can be reversed by political choices. The Department of Labor has the tools; it needs the will and the resources to use them.

What Project 2025 Did to Workers

● Rolled back the Biden-era overtime salary threshold from $58,656 back to $35,568, eliminating overtime pay for millions of salaried workers in management and professional roles
● Rescinded the independent contractor final rule protecting gig workers, making it easier for platform companies to misclassify employees as contractors and deny them FLSA protections
● Defunded NIOSH to fewer than 150 scientists from 1,400 - gutting the research foundation that underlies OSHA safety standards and eliminating the agency's ability to develop new protections
● Promoted Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs that circumvent union-negotiated standards and undermine registered apprenticeship quality and worker wages
● Rescinded the Biden-era fiduciary rule requiring financial advisors to act in retirement savers' best interests - exposing working people's retirement savings to conflicted advice
● Dismantled OFCCP pay equity enforcement, rescinding compensation data collection requirements and ending audits of federal contractors for discriminatory pay practices

The Plan

What Project 2029 proposes.

Based on Chapter 18 (Department of Labor) of Project 2029. Specific legislation. Real timelines. Constitutional authority for every proposal.

PRO Act: Protecting the Right to Organize

Make the right to organize real - with meaningful consequences for breaking it

Pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act as a legislative Day One priority. Key provisions: ban captive audience meetings (the mandatory anti-union meetings employers use to intimidate workers), require card-check union recognition when a majority of workers have signed authorization cards, impose civil penalties of up to $50,000 per unfair labor practice violation (and $100,000 for willful or repeat violations), require binding first-contract arbitration when employers stall negotiations beyond 90 days, and repeal Section 14(b) of the NLRA - the provision that allows states to pass right-to-work laws weakening union security agreements. Restore NLRB to full five-member operation with a confirmed pro-worker majority. Reverse Trump-era General Counsel memoranda that narrowed Section 7 protections. Reinstate the Biden-era 'make-whole' remedy requiring employers to compensate workers for all direct and foreseeable financial harms from unfair labor practices.

Legal Authority: National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. § 151); Commerce Clause; NLRA § 7 rights; NLRA § 10(c) remedy authority

$17 Minimum Wage and Overtime Restoration

A wage that has not been raised since 2009 is not a floor - it is a poverty trap

Raise the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour, phased in over three years, with automatic annual adjustments indexed to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners thereafter - ending the cycle of legislative fights to maintain purchasing power. Eliminate the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour over five years, requiring full minimum wage payment before tips. Issue an Executive Order on Day One raising the federal contractor minimum wage to $17 per hour immediately. Reinstate the Biden-era overtime salary threshold of $58,656 under 29 C.F.R. Part 541 and pursue legislation to index it automatically - so that the threshold cannot be quietly reversed through rulemaking. The 40-hour workweek is the statutory standard under 29 U.S.C. § 207 and will be enforced as written: no overtime averaging, no biweekly workarounds.

Legal Authority: Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C. § 201); Commerce Clause; Executive Order authority for federal contractors

OSHA Rebuilding and Worker Safety Act

One inspector per 6,000 workplaces is not enforcement - it is theater

Immediately reverse all budget cuts to OSHA, restore the 223 inspector positions cut in the FY 2026 budget, and pursue legislation bringing OSHA to a ratio of one inspector per 2,500 workplaces. Rebuild NIOSH from fewer than 150 employees to its full complement of approximately 1,400 scientists and researchers - the research foundation without which OSHA cannot develop or defend science-based safety standards. Finalize the pending OSHA heat standard establishing enforceable requirements for water, shade, rest breaks, and acclimatization plans. Establish criminal referral protocols for willful fatal violations under 18 U.S.C. § 1112 (involuntary manslaughter) and pursue legislation upgrading willful fatal OSH Act violations to federal felonies. For employers with revenues exceeding $10 million, establish a minimum penalty of $1 million for willful violations that cause worker death - replacing a maximum penalty that large corporations treat as a routine business cost. Extend OSHA coverage to all agricultural employers by eliminating the small-farm exemption that has appeared in OSHA's budget since 1977.

Legal Authority: Occupational Safety and Health Act (29 U.S.C. § 651); General Duty Clause (29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1)); Article I appropriations power

Gig Worker Classification and ABC Test Act

If you work for a company, that company is your employer - regardless of what they call you

Codify the ABC test for worker classification into the FLSA statute itself: workers are employees unless the employer can prove (A) the worker is free from the employer's control in performing the work, (B) the work falls outside the employer's usual course of business, and (C) the worker is independently established in that trade or occupation. Issue an Executive Order immediately reinstating the Biden administration's independent contractor final rule (29 C.F.R. Part 795). Direct WHD and NLRB jointly to issue guidance that algorithmic management of worker schedules, assignments, and compensation constitutes employer control for FLSA and NLRA purposes - closing the loophole that allows platform companies to claim their workers are not employees because an algorithm (rather than a human manager) directs their work. Require platform employers above a specified revenue threshold to provide workers with access to the algorithms that determine their compensation, assignment priority, and account deactivation.

Legal Authority: FLSA (29 U.S.C. § 201); NLRA § 2(3); Article I Commerce Clause; ABC test statutory authority

Wage Theft Is a Federal Crime - Prosecute It

Employers who steal $50 billion annually from workers are not making compliance errors

Establish a formal WHD protocol requiring criminal referrals to the Department of Justice for all willful repeat wage theft violations under 29 U.S.C. § 216(a). End the practice of allowing wage thieves to return to normal business operations by paying back stolen wages with no additional consequence. Pursue legislation to double WHD appropriations over four years, with a mandate to hire investigators in industries with documented patterns of wage theft: agriculture, domestic services, construction subcontracting, restaurant and hospitality, and garment manufacturing. Amend 29 U.S.C. § 216(b) to establish enhanced liquidated damages of double the wages owed, and eliminate mandatory arbitration agreements as a bar to wage theft claims in federal court. Aggressively enforce the FLSA's 'hot goods' provision (29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(1)) against supply chains where subcontractors systematically steal wages - making the lead contractor responsible for FLSA compliance throughout its supply chain.

Legal Authority: FLSA §§ 215-216; False Claims Act; Procurement Act; Hot Goods provision (29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(1))

FAMILY Act: Paid Family and Medical Leave

Every other developed nation guarantees this. The United States stands alone in its refusal.

Pass the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act (FAMILY Act), creating a national paid family and medical leave insurance program administered through the Social Security Administration. Workers and employers each contribute approximately 0.2 percent of payroll to fund 12 weeks of paid leave at approximately 66 percent of wages, for birth or adoption of a child, serious illness, care of an ill family member, or military deployment circumstances. The FAMILY Act covers all workers - including part-time, self-employed, and small business employees - addressing the gap in the current FMLA framework, which covers fewer than half of private-sector workers. As a bridge measure, issue an Executive Order directing the Secretary to propose expanding FMLA coverage to employers with 25 or more employees (from the current threshold of 50) within 90 days. Currently only 27 percent of private-sector workers have access to any paid family leave from their employers; among the lowest-wage workers, fewer than 5 percent do.

Legal Authority: Family and Medical Leave Act (29 U.S.C. § 2601); Social Security Act; Commerce Clause; Article I spending power

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