Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 12, 2020, the
U.S. Department of Labor announced its Final Rule clarifying the issue of joint
employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Final Rule
adopts a four-factor balancing test and rejects various factors
that have fueled recent litigation, e.g., a worker's economic
dependence on a potential joint employer, the potential
employer's business model, and its unexercised power over the
worker.
Despite being the subject of intense debate and administrative
focus, the DOL's joint employment interpretation has not been
subject to formal, substantive change in the 60 years since it was
issued. In January 2016, however, then-WHD Administrator David Weil
issued an Administrator's Interpretation ("AI")
regarding joint employment under the FLSA. In the AI, Dr. Weil
published a view that joint employment "should be defined
expansively." The AI focuses the inquiry, in part, on a
worker's economic dependence on the potential joint
