E&W Blog

Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. A Washington Post economic columnist pointed out last week, “Workers are experiencing the biggest decline in years in inflation-adjusted pay.” We can thank Biden’s aggressive regulatory agenda for this "win." What’s more troubling, President Biden’s Department of Labor hasn’t done its worst yet. It is expected to announce dozens of wide-reaching, onerous regulations that will harm American workers and job creators.

This administration’s arrogance is unprecedented. DOL believes it knows better than workers and job creators. DOL’s Washington bureaucrats are eager to control, regulate, and criticize EVERY decision and action made by workers and businesses. This micromanaging and regulatory tsunami will put many out of business. Sadly, the Biden administration will probably consider this a win. After all, according to Democrats, if you don’t toe Biden’s line, you are doing it wrong.

Among DOL’s laundry list of new and burdensome regulations are efforts to continue the permanent pandemic narrative. In other words, Democrats will continue to use COVID-19 as an excuse to let the government put its grubby hands on everything. For example, the administration signaled it could revive the COVID-19 vaccine-and-testing mandate. During an historic worker shortage and supply chain crisis, this is economic suicide. The administration also announced that it will place more onerous reporting requirements on job creators. Good, just what our job creators need—more paperwork, more red tape, and more government mandates.

The DOL is also pushing the use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments to reinforce the Left’s myopic social agenda. Forcing retirement plan fiduciaries to risk workers’ and retirees’ savings by making ESG investments is completely irresponsible. 

Even faith is unsafe from Biden’s radical social agenda. His forthcoming rule, which replaces Trump-era protections of faith-based contractors, will discourage these organizations from bidding for federal contracts and force taxpayers to foot the bill for costlier federal projects. Instead of strengthening First Amendment protections, Biden is weakening them.

The Biden administration also announced a proposed rule change under the Davis-Bacon Act, which will alter the methodology for setting prevailing wages for federal construction projects. Decades ago, the Davis-Bacon method for calculating wages was reformed because it gave disproportionate weight to unions and contributed to inflation. This proposed regulation will harm construction workers who do not belong to unions and underscores a central theme of Biden’s policy agenda—join a union or the unemployment line.

On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid persistent and rising inflation (more Biden “wins”), the American workforce does not need more red tape. Our workforce needs commonsense policies to foster growth and flexibility, so America and its workers win.