DOL Issues Proposed Rule on Joint Employer Status Under FLSA, FMLA, and MPSA; Comments Due June 22
Published April 22, 2026
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division issued a proposed rule addressing joint employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and amending provisions implementing the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA).
Addressing joint employer status under FLSA is for the benefit of workers, employers, or its enforcement personnel. DOL proposes to clarify how to determine joint employer status under the FLSA in Part 791 of Title 29, where its joint employer regulations were located prior to 2021.
DOL proposes to amend provisions in its regulations implementing FMLA and MPSA to provide that joint employer status under those laws be determined using the DOL's FLSA analysis, as FMLA and MSPA both incorporate FLSA’s employment definitions.
The proposed rule:
- Intends to provide clarity and a measure of uniformity for employers and employees in an area of the law where components of legislative, executive, and judicial branches—at both the federal and state levels—have presented widely varying tests and standards;
- Offers a nationwide standard for use by DOL’s investigators and law enforcement personnel that would not only ensure the evenhanded application of FLSA in matters that often cross state and circuit lines but also preserve core consistency with the wide variety of potentially relevant judicial frameworks; and
- Intends to marshal the commonality between those approaches closest to the statute as construed by the courts and, in so doing, simplify DOL’s enforcement of the law, reduce litigation, and provide a reliable and uniform analysis for workers and employers that ultimately applies and complements the core commonality between the various tests applied by the federal courts.
Comments are due June 22, 2026.