Congress has failed workers for decades. Policymakers have not raised the minimum wage in nearly 20 years. They have not passed legislation to fix our nation’s broken labor law, leaving the National Labor Relations Act largely untouched for more than 60 years. Further, they have failed to pass legislation providing U.S. workers with paid sick leave, predictable work schedules, and workplace protections against extreme heat. 

Given Congress’s inability to pass legislation protecting workers’ wages and health and safety, federal regulations are critical to ensuring that workers have meaningful protections. However, Trump and his Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced a massive deregulation effort, robbing U.S. workers of dozens upon dozens of rules that protect them from being forced to risk illness and injury on the job and ensure that they are paid for their labor.

Federal regulations are written by agencies to carry out the specifics of laws passed by Congress. Since laws can remain unchanged for decades, regulations make sure that laws are implemented and administered effectively. Since returning to office, Trump has unleashed a deregulatory agenda that requires agencies to identify 10 regulations to repeal in order to enact one new regulation. This framework perpetuates the misguided belief that regulations are burdensome for employers and harm economic growth. On the contrary, the long-term benefits of regulations consistently outweigh the costs—and research shows their impact on jobs is either neutral or modestly positive.

More than half of the regulations Trump’s DOL proposes to rescind are designed to ensure that workers have safe workplaces, such as requiring employers to limit workers’ exposure to a variety of harmful substances like benzene, asbestos, lead, and cotton dust.

Other rules being eliminated protect workers’ wages. These include the 2013 home health care worker rule, which gave in-home care workers the right to earn the minimum wage and overtime pay for the first time. DOL also wants to roll back the 2024 farmworker protections rule, which would have helped farmworkers advocate for better working conditions and required other protections for this extremely vulnerable group of low-wage workers. Trump’s DOL also withdrew a proposed rule that would have eliminated the subminimum wage for workers with disabilities, effectively keeping many people with disabilities unable to receive fair pay for their work.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer framed this massive deregulatory effort as eliminating unnecessary regulations that are burdensome and obsolete. To be clear, there is nothing obsolete about rules that protect workers from exposure to harmful substances. These substances have not become less harmful over time—they still sicken, injure, and kill workers each year. In 2023, more than 800 workers died from exposure to harmful substances and environments. There is also nothing obsolete about rules that ensure workers are paid for their labor, especially when employers are estimated to steal $15 billion from workers’ paychecks each year.

Despite Trump’s rhetoric and the Secretary of Labor’s confirmation promises, Trump and Chavez-DeRemer are clearly advancing an anti-worker agenda. Trump’s DOL proposes to eliminate regulations that protect workers’ health and safety and make sure workers are fairly compensated for their work. This is not an agenda that serves workers—in fact, the repeal of these rules is a gift to corporate bad actors who resist complying with the rules.