The beginning of the second presidency of President Donald Trump has already included “dramatic changes” in politics and labor and labor law, and more expected, the Littler Policy Institute said in his 2025 Labor Day report, published last week.
“In less than nine months, the new administration has transformed more than six decades of labor and labor policy, and there is no hint that the pace will be slowed down. As a key supervision and execution agency, we predict that the disorder more,” said Shannon Meade, executive director of the WPI and WPI Co-Cojos Alex Macdonald and Jim Pareti in a joint statement.
Some of the changes benefit the entrepreneurs, but “this is not universal,” said the authors. Federal changes are also opposed to “the so -called” blue states “that the laws pass in response that either gives employees more protections at the workplace or trying to return to the scale in favor of workers, said Littler.
Littler identified the following trends:
Federal “independent” agencies are in question
Days after taking office, Trump fired several officials of the United States Employment Opportunity Opportunities Commission and the National Board of Labor Relations, among other independent agencies.
Some of these officials have filed demands alleging the illegal termination and challenged the President’s authority to eliminate the federal agency leaders. The Trump administration, on the other hand, has questioned the constitutionality of Humphrey’s executor v. United StatesA 90 -year -old Supreme Court decision reaffirmed the power of the congress to create independent councils and commissions, and denied the President the ability to eliminate members of these agencies at will.
Meanwhile, the traits have left both EEOC and NLRB without a quorum, limiting what agencies are allowed.
Lottler recommends that entrepreneurs monitor both the confirmations of candidates for the agency and for the Supreme Court’s judgments.
“Ultimately, the court will have to decide whether these removals were lawful. And if they were,” independent “agencies can be a thing of the past. Instead of exercising independent experience,” they can simply monitor the President’s political priorities, “said the authors.
Union adherence is down, but legislators consider the laws in favor of workers
Although the unions have more efforts and organizing elections, their membership continues to fall and the union density went down to the lower levels of the 2024 record, said Littler.
At the same time, more states have approved laws to ban or restrict meetings sponsored by the employer, known as “captive audience” meetings, according to the report. So far, 13 states have recently approved the legislation, including Rhode Island.
The authors warned that these laws “restrict the ability of entrepreneurs to share their opinions and to express themselves freely in the workplace” and “also place them at a significant disadvantage when they face a quick development union campaign.”
At the federal level, legislators are studying the faster labor contract law, which was proposed in the spring to accelerate labor management negotiations, said Littler.
“The bill is mainly supported by Democrats and is strongly opposed by the business community, not only because it accelerates the collective bargaining process, but also because the bill would allow foreigners for the first time to force entrepreneurs to accept specific negotiation agreements,” said the authors.
Trump’s administration pushes to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs
Trump has addressed DEI programs and has commissioned “federal agencies throughout the government to focus their efforts on eliminating the most aggressive programs as possible,” Littler said.
“The way these efforts go out to court, how the administration is still being pressed and what various federal government agencies do to advance this agenda – and what states do in response – they see to see,” the report said.
However, considering the way in which they have been the cases of great profile, the authors said that “businessmen in all sectors who maintain the DEI initiatives are recommended to consult with the lawyer and stay up to date on developments.”
Changes to overtime and the classification of workers
In the report, Littler questioned which approach would adopt the Trump administration with respect to the overtime of the white neck, which was proposed by a Biden administration rule in 2024 and was then evicted by a federal judge.
“The question is now whether the second Trump administration will leave the call and will allow the 2019 rule to remain in force, or will it review and try to increase this threshold of 2019?”
On September 4, days after the publication of the report, the United States Department of Labor confirmed that it intends to review its extraordinary hours regulations under the Law on Fair Work Rules. Mourning did not give a schedule for the action, but said that he was reviewing the rule of overtime of the Biden administration and is “determining how to proceed.” The administration has already appealed a decision by the federal court that dismissed the standard of 2024 to the fifth court of appeal to the United States circuit.
Littler also predicted that the federal government seemed “ready to loosen the rules of classification to allow more workers to be classified as [independent] Contractors. “On September 4, Dol confirmed that he hoped to publish the updated decision of independent contractors at the end of the month.
Blue states respond, Littler said, adopting “more likely to give rise to the traditional state of employees.”
The application of immigration is a priority
Trump administration-related immigration policy changes and related application actions mean that entrepreneurs should expect more I-9 audits and raids on the workplace, said Littler.
“ Strong application measures will require greater surveillance from Human Resources departments to complete and maintain employment authorization documentation. At the same time, entrepreneurs can deal with more difficulty hiring talent outside the United States, given stricter interpretations of immigration rules and procedures, ” said the authors.
Wells Fargo economists said in a June report that the increase in immigration “went a long way to relieve … Historical labor deficiencies”, especially during Covid-19 Pandemic. Also, the problems of staff that have long been concerned about the long -term care industry are aggravating by immigration changes and the construction industry plans to see similar job challenges.
Artificial intelligence regulations are patchwork
The new administration emphasized the “deregulation and technological competitiveness” when it comes to AI, a departure from the Biden administration, according to the report. In response, states and localities are taking “leadership in conforming with the AI labor law” to combat potential algorithmic bias, transparency and workers’ surveillance.
“For entrepreneurs, this evolution of the regulations raises important issues on the risk, responsibility and fulfillment in the time of the AI,” said the authors.
For this reason, entrepreneurs should say that their AI ethics policies are flexible and evolving, a CEO of a AI software company recently told RRHH Dive.
“A static AI policy will be obsolete before the ink dries,” he said. “Treat it as a living game book that evolves with the technology, regulations and needs of your workforce.”
