Report: Biden Tabs Boston Mayor Marty Walsh As Labor Secretary

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as his secretary of labor.

The nomination of Walsh was rumored for weeks, but comes two days after Democrats swept a pair of Senate races in Georgia. The wins by Rafael Warnock and Jon Ossoff over Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, gives Democrats control of the Senate.

That means Biden's cabinet nominations face much-easier confirmation votes. Walsh will be controversial for conservatives due to his more-than-three-decade career as a union officer and activist.

He is expected to help Biden pursue a pro-worker agenda. Walsh was president of the Laborers' Union Local 223 when he was elected mayor of Boston in 2014. Walsh was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1997 until 2014.

In addition, Walsh will lead any efforts to remake the investment advice rule the Trump administration published Dec. 15. That rule is expected to be withdrawn by the Biden administration upon taking office.

The investment advice rule is a replacement for the fiduciary rule put forth by the Obama administration. In 2018, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans tossed out the fiduciary rule, handing a major win to industry opponents. Trump's replacement relies on a best-interest standard. Biden could toughen that standard and re-publish the rule, or direct Walsh to start from scratch with a new rule.

Biden campaigned on a vow to promote union issues and to make it easier for employees to join unions and collective bargain. Here are some worker issues a left-leaning DOL could tackle over the next four years:

• Minimum wage. Biden supports a $15 federal minimum wage. His official website called "wage theft" a serious issue he intends to address. He noted that “employers steal about $15 billion a year from working people just by paying workers less than the minimum wage.”
• Overtime. The DOL could revive an Obama-era overtime rule that had raised the minimum salary for exempt status to $913 per week ($47,476 per year), which was invalidated by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The court ruled that the $913 per week salary level was too high. The Trump DOL overtime rule took effect Jan. 1, 2020, and the minimum salary for exempt status increased to $684 per week ($35,568 annually), up from $455 per week ($23,660 annually).
• Worker classification. Biden also supports aggressive prosecution of employers who violate labor laws, including those who intentionally misclassify employees as independent contractors. Biden has said that he will support legislation that makes worker misclassification a substantive violation of law under all federal labor, employment and tax law.
• Gig workers. Employer misclassification of “gig economy” workers as independent contractors, also has Biden's attention. Doing so prevents them from receiving their legal benefits and protections. Biden supports using a strong three-prong “ABC test” to distinguish employees from independent contractors.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.

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InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.