IA Lobbies New Labor Secretary over Incentives

The Insights Association has expressed concern about the appointment of former Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer, confirmed today as Secretary of the Department of Labor. Chavez-DeRemer has previously supported the PRO bill, which if passed will hamper the payment of respondent incentives.

The IA has worked over a number of years to ensure that research subjects are not misclassified as employees: this includes amending a law in the State of California, in 2020-21 that would have required a minimum wage for research subjects; and criticizing an FTC policy statement issued in the last few days of the Biden Administration, that encouraged the unionization of independent contractors.

Howard Fienberg, Senior VP Advocacy for the Insights Association, comments: 'The insights industry welcomes Secretary DeRemer to her position with some trepidation, given her past comments and actions on independent contractor status. The issue is key to being able to provide research subjects with any kind of incentives for participation in market research studies, for which they must be treated as independent contractors (rather than employees of the firms conducting the studies). Unfortunately, current federal labor law and regulations can seem ambiguous on this point'.

The PRO Act (Protecting the Right to Organize) would if passed dramatically expand the definition of 'employee' in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), adding an ABC test to determine if someone is an independent contractor or employee for purposes of union organizing, making it harder to properly classify research subjects as independent contractors. Chavez-DeRemer's recent comments have suggested that she may no longer support the current version of the bill, which was introduced by the Biden administration and passed its committee stage in the Senate in 2023.

Fienberg concludes: 'Research subjects do not seek to share their opinions as a job or as a proxy for employment, but rather because they wish to share their opinions and have an impact on products, services or ideas (and maybe have some fun as well). Research subjects' participation is completely voluntary and they may opt out at any time. Should the Labor Department reengage with these regulations, we call upon Secretary DeRemer to either harmonize with the common law approach or affirmatively clarify that research subjects receiving incentives are independent contractors'.

Web site: www.insightsassociation.org .