Friend,

Welcome to the March MidPoint newsletter. We kick off Women’s History Month with facts about women’s advances in the workforce and the Biden Department of Labor’s independent contracting rule (as well as the efforts afoot to fight back). Plus, the faux Equal Pay Day holiday is upon us. We explain why it’s as misleading as the pay gap. 

Keep reading for the latest economic, labor, and tech analysis from Independent Women’s Forum’s Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO).

Patrice Onwuka
Director, Center for Economic Opportunity

 TOPLINE
Biden’s Budget: A Roadmap for Irresponsible Spending and Painful Tax 
Increases

This week, President Biden released his fiscal year 2025 budget proposal. Not surprisingly, his top priority is excessive, inflationary spending coupled with growth-killing taxes that will hit hardworking Americans in the wallets. Most of the proposed expenditures in the FY2025 budget are resurrected scraps from President Biden’s failed Build Back Better (or Build Back Broke) proposal that was eventually chopped down to some climate-change spending in the non-inflation-reducing Inflation Reduction Act.
…
As we’ve written about, many of these programs, such as paid leave, child care, and universal pre-K, will leave many families worse off by displacing their preferred options and current flexible benefits or expanding the woeful results of Head Start to more little ones, as well as opening the door to our toddlers being indoctrinated with progressive ideology.

[keep reading]

 SPOTLIGHT
Fox News | IWF President Carrie Lukas: These New Government Contracting Rules Will Put Parents, Caregivers, Seniors Out of Work

Studying how government regulations affect women’s employment is a priority of the organization that I run, Independent Women’s Forum. Now, rather than reviewing data and economic reports, we have become a case study of how ill-advised policies hurt women. 

We are working with human resources consultants and lawyers to address this topic from an unfortunate angle: How many women will we have to let go when the new Department of Labor independent contracting rule takes effect?

[keep reading]

 REGULATORY WATCH
IWF Signs Coalition Letter to Congressional Committees Opposing the Department of Labor’s Newly Enacted Independent Contractor Rule

On behalf of the undersigned organizations and a 70-million-strong freelancing workforce in America, we urge you to consider how this economically damaging rule, which demonstrates administrative overreach, will impact American workers.
…
The new Biden DOL rule will end many self-employment and small business careers by improperly classifying many independent contractors as employees against their will. Just as concerning, this rule contains new confusing and subjective criteria for determining employment status, which will have a chilling effect on businesses and individuals that will decline to form new productive relationships because they are unable to navigate regulatory requirements rife with gray areas. Many small businesses and even charities may struggle to keep operating, unable to use contractors for limited services anymore or to afford to hire traditional employees without stable, permanent roles for them. 
Issues with the rule include: ... 

[READ THE FULL LETTER]

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