Four months after its controversial nominee, David Weil, withdrew his name from contention as Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor (DOL), the White House has nominated Acting Administrator Jessica Looman to head the post. Prior to joining the DOL as Principal Deputy Administrator of the WHD at the beginning of 2021, Ms. Looman was executive director of the Minnesota building trades coalition. She had been in the position of Acting Administrator since June 2021 but due to regulatory requirements for agency nominees, that title officially has been removed, despite the fact that she will retain all of the same duties while her nomination is pending.
Since Ms. Looman began leading the WHD as Acting Administrator, the Division has rescinded final rules, issued during the previous administration, concerning the joint employer and independent contractor analyses, and has signaled its intent to issue new final rules regarding the independent contractor analysis and eligibility for the executive, administrative, and professional (i.e., the “white collar”) exemptions. Notably, a court subsequently deemed unlawful the DOL’s withdrawal of the independent contractor final rule, and that rule is now in effect unless and until a new final rule is enacted. For more information on this development, see our article, DOL Withdrawal of Trump-Era Independent Contractor Final Rule Unlawful, Court Rules.
Prior to Ms. Looman’s nomination, the Biden...
On Friday, April 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has agreed to pay just over $17 million to resolve allegations that ...