The Big Beautiful Bill is bragging about “no tax on overtime.” Zero percent tax on overtime pay — a real thing they announced as a worker win. What they didn’t announce, in the same breath, is that the Department of Labor just proposed a rule making it dramatically easier to call your employees “independent contractors.” Independent contractors don’t get overtime. They don’t get minimum wage. They don’t get workers’ comp or unemployment. There’s no tax on overtime when there’s no overtime to tax.
This isn’t an accident. The rule rolls back Biden’s 2024 contractor classification protections — the rule that made it harder for companies to misclassify workers as gig laborers. The comment period closed in April. Employers celebrated. The workers who’ll lose overtime protections haven’t heard yet.
The grift runs so clean it’s almost artistic. Cut healthcare for the poor, call it “work requirements.” Strip overtime from the workforce, call it a “simplified test.” Slap “no tax” on something you’re actively taking away. The workers who voted for this are the target.