On January 29th, U.S. Senators Mike Braun (R-IN) and Rick Scott (R-FL) sent a letter to Acting Department of Labor Secretary Julie Su, urging the Department to reverse the rule. Senators Braun and Scott, writing as members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, focused specifically on the rule’s impact on older workers. They note that while many older workers have retired and do not wish to return to full time work, they do participate heavily in the “gig economy” and will be harmed by complicated guidelines classifying them as employees. They report that many older people work because of financial difficulties and the rule will “choke off the gig economy’s critical safety valve for these older workers.”
The rule has additional implications for aging services providers and how employees are classified, but the letter did not address those issues. The regulation will take effect on March 11th; details on its implications for aging services providers are documented in this article.
