On February 26, 2026, the Trump Administration’s Department of Labor (DOL) announced a new proposed independent contractor rule that impacts worker classification decisions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and related federal laws.

The proposed rule would withdraw the Biden Administration’s 2024 final regulation governing independent contractor classification and replace it with an employee classification framework largely aligned with the approach adopted in 2021 by the first Trump Administration. The Biden era rule generally made it harder to classify contractors and favored employee status. The proposed rule, if adopted, would mean more workers are likely to be classified as independent contractors vs. employees.