Data / Federal rules / 2026-03962

Employee or Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act

The Wage and Hour Division published this proposed rule in the Federal Register on February 27, 2026. Comments closed on April 28, 2026.

SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. It reads every rule and proposed rule in the Federal Register each morning, and this page is that reading. Name your industry once and new rules, comment deadlines and effective dates arrive in your sheet, CRM, Slack or agent as they are published.

Get new rules for your industry

What the agency says

The Department is proposing to rescind the analysis for determining employee or independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) currently set forth in 29 CFR part 795 and replace it with the analysis that it published and adopted in a prior final rule dated January 7, 2021, with a few modifications. In addition, the Department proposes to apply this analysis to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA), both of which incorporate the FLSA's scope of employment.

Key facts

Document number: 2026-03962
Type: Proposed rule
Action: Notice of proposed rule; request for comments
Agency: Labor Department; Wage and Hour Division
Published: February 27, 2026
Comments due: April 28, 2026
Dates: Comments must be received on or before April 28, 2026.
Docket: Docket No. WHD-2026-0001
Regulation ID (RIN): 1235-AA46
Code of Federal Regulations: 29 CFR 500; 29 CFR 795; 29 CFR 825
Topics: Administrative practice and procedure; Airmen; Aliens; Employee benefit plans; Employment; Health; Health insurance; Housing; Insurance; Intergovernmental relations; Investigations; Labor management relations; Licensing and registration; Maternal and child health; Migrant labor; Motor vehicle safety; Occupational safety and health; Penalties; Pensions; Reporting and recordkeeping requirements; Teachers; Wages; Whistleblowing
Significant: Yes, under Executive Order 12866
Pages: 45

The document on federalregister.gov PDF

Other documents from the Wage and Hour Division

Document	Type	Published
Statements of General Policy or Interpretation Not Directly Related to Regulations; Withdrawal of Proposed Rule 2026-20523	Proposed rule	Oct 7
Rescission of Coordinated Enforcement Regulations 2026-17726	Final rule	Aug 31
Department of Labor Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Annual Adjustments for 2026 2026-10456 · significant	Final rule	May 27
Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees; Implementation of Federal Court Judgments 2026-09839	Final rule	May 15
Joint Employer Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act 2026-07959 · significant	Proposed rule	Apr 23
Employment of Workers With Disabilities Under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act; Withdrawal 2025-12534	Proposed rule	Jul 7, 2025
Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act to Domestic Service 2025-12316	Proposed rule	Jul 2, 2025
Recission of Final Rule: Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States 2025-12315 · significant	Proposed rule	Jul 2, 2025

Everything from the Wage and Hour Division · Rules on administrative practice and procedure · Rules on airmen · Rules on aliens · Published in February 2026

Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.