An Update on the Trump Workplace Agenda
With the new Administration only a few days old, the details of President Trump’s workplace legislative agenda are still largely conceptual. Despite this lack of specificity, here are four issues we are keeping an eye on:
- Repeal and Replace the ACA – President Trump, in one of his first acts as president, signed an executive order to roll back Obamacare. The order, which is broad in scope, does not specify which components of the ACA to suspend. The president’s stated goals are to ensure “insurance for all,” negotiated drug pricing and elimination of state barriers to offering insurance coverage.
- Paid Maternity Leave & Child Care – During his transition period, President-elect Trump put forward a policy objective of guaranteeing six weeks of paid maternity leave for mothers and pledged to lower child care costs. Such a program will likely rely heavily on tax incentives and credits for child care.
- Overtime Rule – In 2016, the Labor Department nearly doubled the minimum salary for an employee to be exempt from the overtime provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act. That rule was stayed by a federal judge in November, subject to DOL’s appeal. Meanwhile, during the transition period Mr. Trump has indicated that federal regulations in general would be rolled back, and with specific reference to the overtime rule he said he would at least want to see a small businesses exemption. His choice for Labor Secretary, Andrew Puzder, had strongly opposed the rule in an op-ed earlier in the year.
- Immigration and the Workplace – Last year, then presidential candidate Donald Trump promised that his administration would push for changes to the H-1B and F-1 OPT immigration programs and requiring e-verify for all workers in order to curb illegal immigration. E-verify is currently voluntary in most states and for most workers.
Stay tuned. As the details of these regulatory changes are worked out, Affinity HR Group will keep you posted on major changes and their impact on your business.
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