Data / Federal rules / 2026-07959
Joint Employer 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 April 23, 2026. Comments closed on June 22, 2026.
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What the agency says
Since 2021, the Department has not provided any regulatory guidance addressing joint employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA or Act) for the benefit of workers, employers, or its enforcement personnel. In this rulemaking, the Department proposes to clarify how to determine joint employer status under the FLSA in Part 791 of Title 29, where its joint employer regulations were located prior to 2021. Additionally, the Department is also proposing to amend provisions in its regulations implementing the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) to provide that joint employer status under those laws be determined using the Department's FLSA analysis, as the FMLA and MSPA both incorporate the FLSA's employment definitions. This rulemaking is intended to provide clarity and a measure of uniformity for employers and employees in an area of the law where components of legislative, executive, and judicial branches--at both the federal and state levels--have presented widely varying tests and standards. In addition, the proposed rule offers a nationwide standard for use by the Department's investigators and law enforcement personnel that would not only ensure the evenhanded application of the Act in matters that often cross state and circuit lines but also preserve core consistency with the wide variety of potentially relevant judicial frameworks. The proposed rule intends to marshal the commonality between those approaches closest to the statute as construed by the courts and, in so doing, simplify the Department's enforcement of the law, reduce litigation, and provide a reliable and uniform analysis for workers and employers that ultimately applies and complements the core commonality between the various tests applied by the federal courts.
Key facts
- Document number
- 2026-07959
- Type
- Proposed rule
- Action
- Notice of proposed rulemaking
- Agency
- Labor Department; Wage and Hour Division
- Published
- April 23, 2026
- Comments due
- June 22, 2026
- Dates
- Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on this notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). Comments must be received on or before June 22, 2026.
- Docket
- Docket No. WHD-2026-0067
- Regulation ID (RIN)
- 1235-AA48
- Code of Federal Regulations
- 29 CFR 500; 29 CFR 780; 29 CFR 791; 29 CFR 825
- Topics
- Administrative practice and procedure; Agriculture; Airmen; Aliens; Child labor; 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
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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.