Senate Panel Considers Wage And Hour Nominee

While the federal government closed on Tuesday due to inclement weather, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) forged ahead with its hearing to consider the nomination of David Weil to be the next DOL Wage and Hour Division (WHD) Administrator. This position – which has been vacant for several years – is an important one. The WHD will be the sub-agency charged with enforcing the recently-issued "companionship" rule extending Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) protections to home healthcare workers, as well as the DOL's many worker misclassification initiatives.

As previously discussed, Dr. Weil has spent the vast majority of his career in academia. Sen. Warren (D-MA) noted in her introduction of Weil that he has taught at Boston University's School of Management for two decades, and currently serves as the co-director of the Transparency Policy Project at Harvard's JFK School of Government. While a professor, Weil was the principal