President Trump nominated Jonathan Berry to be the next Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL).  Jonathan Berry is a managing partner at Boyden Gray PLLC and a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.  He is also the author of Chapter 18 of Project 2025’s treatise Mandate for Leadership, which focuses on labor department priorities and activities.

Berry is a very experienced government bureaucrat.  He headed the regulatory office at the USDOL, where he oversaw the development process of dozens of proposed and final rules.  He also served at the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, assisting with nominations and proper use of subregulatory guidance documents.

Chapter 18 has some specific recommendations for USDOL priorities.

1. Salary level test and base rate: Chapter 18 argues that the salary level test of $684 per week is appropriate for classifications purposes.  Increasing it, like the Biden era regulations, will create greater costs for employers and eventually on the purchasers of their products (inflationary).  Further, Project 2025 recommends that congress should clarify that the “regular rate” for overtime pay is based on the salary paid rather than all benefits provided. This would enable employers to provide additional benefits to employees without fear that those benefits would dramatically increase overtime pay. 
2. Alternatives to overtime to be meaningful for employees: These recommendations include allowing non-exempt workers to elect to receive paid time off instead of overtime, incentivizing on-site childcare, forcing employers to pay overtime rates for employees that have to work on Sunday (or Saturday depending on the particular religion), limiting overtime to employees who work remotely unless they work over 10 hours in a specific day, and removing home offices from OSHA regulations. How the overtime recommendations will jive with the proposed no tax on overtime is still yet to be determined.
3. Independent contractor control test: Specifically, the proposal is to harmonize interpretations among various agencies on independent contractors. and recommends that congress should establish a bright-line test—based on the level of control an individual exercises over his or her work—to determine whether a payee is an employee or an independent contractor, across all relevant laws.  This approach would allow consistency in enforcement. 
4. Joint employment test: The proposal is to have the definition of joint employment based on “direct and immediate control” rather than a variety of direct and indirect control factors.  It is easier to manage the expectations of all parties involved and will not create a situation that would greatly expand joint control that the Obama administration did with the NLRB Browning-Ferris case.
5. Vary salary level test regions and overtime requirements for small businesses: In addition, Chapter 18  proposals include a lower salary threshold for exempt status in certain geographic regions, such as the Southeast, and giving employers the flexibility to calculate overtime over a longer period of time (so extra hours worked one week could be offset by lesser hours in a subsequent week without triggering overtime obligations).
6. Youth employment: Chapter 18 recommends a relaxation of current regulations limiting teenage workers from certain inherently dangerous jobs so long as the teenager receives training and parental consent.
7. Reduce dependence on immigration: Chapter 18 recommends a series of immigration changes to increase the utilization of American citizens, including limitations on the H-2A visa program, giving employers the freedom to prefer to hire American workers over workers from other countries, and even mandating a minimum percentage of American workers on federal contracts (up to 95% over a 10-year period).  Whether this is realistic, especially in the agricultural industry, is up for debate.

There is more. 

Certain proposals can be made through a regulatory environment, but more must be completed through legislative action.  How much will come through is unknown, but if these proposals plus more are enacted into law, HR will have its hands full.

Source:   Project 2025, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP 4/3/25,  Law360, 7/19/24, 7/1/24