ALBUQUERQUE — During the week of April 27, N.M. State Rep. Eleanor Chávez, D-Albuquerque, led 113 fellow state legislators across 23 states in a joint letter opposing a U.S. Department of Labor proposal that threatens the benefits of American workers and solvency of state governments.
The Department’s proposal would revoke rules in the Fair Labor Standards Act for determining whether a worker is classified as an employee or an independent contractor. This change is expected to reclassify 250,000 American workers as independent contractors, putting their benefits and worker protections at risk. It would also shift the responsibility for hundreds of millions of dollars in unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and Medicaid costs onto the states.
Despite the widespread repercussions of the proposed rule change, the Department has reportedly not conducted a thorough analysis on impacts of the rule or provided an estimation of its fiscal impact on states and workers…