On March 14, President Trump rescinded the Biden-era Investing in America and Investing in American Workers Executive Order (sometimes referred to as the “Good Jobs” Executive Order). The Good Jobs EO was issued on September 6, 2024 to promote strong labor standards on projects receiving federal funds through the signature Biden-era economic investments, including ARPA, IIJA, CHIPS, and IRA.  

The Good Jobs EO stated that government agencies disbursing these key federal grants should prioritize applicants who commit to strong labor standards that create high-quality jobs. The EO described a comprehensive set of labor standards to be considered, divided into six categories:  

• Protect worker’s right to organize by promoting the use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) and union neutrality agreements.  

• Create high-wage jobs through prevailing wage standards and equitable compensation practices such as pay transparency. 

• Create economic security by prioritizing projects that provide benefits to workers like paid leave and health insurance. 

• Support workforce development through registered apprenticeships, labor-management partnerships and other training organizations. 

• Encouraging equitable workforce development plans including policies like local and targeted hiring. 

• Support workplace safety by encouraging reporting structures that improve compliance with workplace health and safety laws. 

The Good Jobs EO specified that agencies should incentivize these labor standards to the greatest extent possible under statute, including by creating application evaluation criteria related to these standards. The agencies were also called on to issue best practices on labor standards, collect data on project job quality, and negotiate with applicants to promote strong labor standards on projects. 

Impact:  

The Good Jobs EO aimed to improve job quality for the millions of jobs projected to be created by recent federal investments. Some critical federal labor standards, such as prevailing wage requirements apprenticeship tax credit incentives in the IRA are currently law and cannot be revoked through executive order alone. However, the Trump administration’s decision to revoke this executive order means that more federal funding could go to exploitative employers, and that employers receiving federal funding will likely create jobs with lower wages, worse benefits, and that are less likely to be unionized than if the Biden EO had remained in place. 

Project 2025 Reference: p. 604