Below are the five labor and employment issues that Trump’s administration will likely address. Republicans control the White House, Senate, and House. However, they do not have enough votes to overrule the filibuster. This will make it difficult to pass major/controversial legislation.
1️⃣ More Employer Friendly Labor Decisions
Trump will likely replace the NLRB’s leadership. The impact of this is that over time, we will likely see a roll-back of the very employee-friendly NLRB decisions during the Biden Administration. Notably, however, this will take some time. I expect to see a shift over a period of years, not months.
2️⃣ Rollback of Federal AI Regulation
Biden issued a detailed AI Executive Order which addressed a number of issues relating to AI in the workplace. Trump is likely to repeal Biden’s Executive Order. One might think this is because of Trump’s alliance with Elon Musk, and that’s certainly logincal. However, this is more in line with Trump’s overall theme of “less government regulation.” You can expect AI regulation to be a state issue versus regulated at the federal level.
3️⃣ Federal Minimum Wage
Trump is not likely to increase the federal minimum wage. If he does, It will likely be a minimal increase. Any attempt to increase minimum wage would need congressional approval, and Trump did not seek to do so in his first term. While Trump did campaign on a platform to increase wages for workers, I doubt we will see a massive increase, if any at all. It’s more likely that minimum wage increases will come at the local level, again, keeping with Trump’s theme of less federal government intrusion.
4️⃣ No Federal Paid Leave
The United States remains the only industrialized nation that doesn’t provide a federal mandate ensuring workers have at least some paid time off to manage an illness or for the birth of a child.
Could we see a bipartisan bill for federal paid leave? Maybe. However, the more likely result is the same as minimum wage, this is an issue left to local governments.
5️⃣ Reduce OSHA Regulations
Trump will likely reduce government oversight on workplace safety issues. During his first term in office, Trump’s administration cut the number of inspectors to the lowest amount in OSHA’s history, declined to mandate employers to take any protective measures against COVID-19, and rescinded part of the electronic recordkeeping requirements. Expect more of the same over the next four years again, under the theory of less government regulation.