Skilled nursing and senior living operators that rely on staffing agencies, contract clinicians, or management companies to fill PBJ-reportable hours would get a clear, but not risk-free, federal standard for wage-and-hour and FMLA liability in those relationships. Operators should review staffing, subcontracting, and franchise arrangements with legal counsel now, since state joint employer standards can still apply regardless of how the federal rule is finalized.
US DOL Releases Proposed Rule on Joint Employer under the Fair Labor Standards Act
On April 22, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division announced a proposed rule to address joint employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Joint employment is a concept that applies when two or more businesses share control over an employee’s working conditions. The proposal aims to establish a single and clearer nationwide standard to help resolve legal uncertainty for determining when two or more employers are jointly liable for wages, overtime, and other worker protections.
— AHCA/NCAL, April 28, 2026
Ritchie, Dana. “US DOL Releases Proposed Rule on Joint Employer under the Fair Labor Standards Act.” AHCA/NCAL, 28 Apr. 2026, https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Blog/Pages/US-DOL-Releases-Proposed-Rule-on-Joint-Employer-under-the-Fair-Labor-Standards-Act-.aspx
Ways the DOL’s ‘joint employer’ rule could be improved, according to senior living groups
Senior living organizations have suggested minor changes to the “joint employer” rule proposed by the Department of Labor, saying that the suggestions would improve predictability and stability in how the rule is applied when they work with third parties. Under the proposed rule, a business would be deemed a joint employer only if it directly exercises meaningful control over another company’s employees.
— McKnight’s Senior Living, June 25, 2026
Senior living and the ‘joint employer’ shuffle: a risky mix
These days, many communities run on layered staffing models. Agency caregivers, subcontracted clinicians, management companies and internal teams often share responsibility for care delivery. The question of who counts as the “employer” is not academic. It determines who carries wage-and-hour exposure, who is pulled into litigation, and how contracts are structured around scarce labor.
— McKnight’s Senior Living, June 24, 2026
House Democrats urge DOL to scrap ‘joint employer’ rule, citing harm to small businesses, workers
The new definition of “joint employer” proposed by the Department of Labor would harm small businesses and cost workers more than $1 billion annually and, therefore, should be withdrawn, the ranking members of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce and its Subcommittee on Workforce Protections told Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling on Monday in a letter.
— McKnight’s Senior Living, June 22, 2026
DOL formally rescinds Biden-era overtime rule, resetting exemptions to 2019 thresholds
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour division on Thursday formally rescinded a Biden-era rule that in the summer of 2024 called for making millions more salaried workers eligible for overtime pay effective July 1, 2025. The new final rule, published Friday in the Federal Register and effective immediately, essentially reverses the overtime eligibility expansion and resets the salary threshold for the Federal Labor Standards Act overtime exemption for executive, administrative and professional employees to $684 per week, and it restores the highly compensated employee exemption threshold to $107,432 in total annual compensation.
— McKnight’s Senior Living, May 18, 2026
The proposal would change the definition of joint employer under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, in turn changing when skilled nursing, senior living, home care and other businesses would be jointly responsible for employment terms and conditions for a shared group of workers, including, for instance, the ability to hire, fire, discipline, supervise or direct them.
— McKnight’s Senior Living, April 24, 2026
