Description: On July 12, 2017, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing on Redefining Joint Employer Standards: Barriers to Job Creation and Entrepreneurship.

Fair Economy Impact: The hearing provided Republican members an opportunity to attack the concept of joint employer liability under the nation’s basic labor and employment laws. At its most basic, the joint employer standard simply requires that when multiple employers co-determine or share control over a workers’ terms of employment (such as pay, schedules, and job duties), each of those employers is responsible for compliance with worker protection laws. The hearing focused nearly exclusively on employers and the complexities they might encounter when opening (or considering opening) franchises or considering new business models. However, the joint employer standard is really about ensuring that workers are able to exercise their rights—like the right to a minimum wage or the freedom to choose to join a union. Given the realities of the modern workplace, in which employees often find themselves subject to more than one employer, workers deserve a joint employment standard—under both the FLSA and the NLRA—that guarantees these basic rights and protections.