On January 14, 2025, President-elect Trump named former U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Commissioner Keith Sonderling as his pick for deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). This is a significant appointment as it places an experienced labor and employment attorney, who has served in both the EEOC and DOL, as second-in-command under the previously announced secretary of labor pick Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

Sonderling began his career as a management-side labor and employment attorney in his native state of Florida. After spending nearly 10 years in the private sector he joined the DOL in the first Trump administration. There he held several roles, most notably serving as the acting and deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD). In 2020, Sonderling was tapped to become one of five commissioners at the EEOC. He was strongly supported by the business community and confirmed by the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support. He finished his tenure at the EEOC in August of 2024.

The deputy secretary of labor serves as the de facto chief operating officer of the DOL, managing an approximately 17,000-person workforce and a $14 billion dollar budget. Further, the deputy manages the politically appointed heads of each agency that falls under the DOL, including vital agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, WHD, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), among others.

Sonderling has a track record of prioritizing clear guidance on both traditional issues such as those found in wage and hour law or occupational safety and cutting-edge issues such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. Sonderling’s record throughout his career provides insight into what employers can expect from Sonderling’s leadership as the deputy secretary of labor.

1. A Complementary Pick to the DOL Secretary Nominee

President-elect Trump’s selection of Lori Chavez-DeRemer to serve as labor secretary surprised many in the business community because the former congresswoman was widely supported by labor unions, and she co-sponsored the controversial Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, far-reaching legislation that contains what may be considered to be a wish list of union demands. With his close relationships to the business community and his preference for a deregulatory framework, Sonderling will complement Chavez-DeRemer’s labor-friendly disposition to help achieve the policy objectives of the second Trump administration. In this regard, Sonderling is widely expected to bring more balance at top levels of DOL leadership. Given his deep experience working in the federal government, including serving in two presidential administrations and at multiple federal agencies, he will help Chavez-DeRemer navigate the bureaucracy.

2. More Opinion Letters from the DOL that Will Provide Timely Guidance to Employers and the Public in an Ever-Evolving Labor Market

Sonderling is widely expected to prioritize and expand the DOL’s compliance assistance, especially the use of opinion letters. In brief, opinion letters are official written opinions from an agency on how a statute, its implementing regulations, and related case law apply to a specific situation presented by the person or entity requesting the opinion. Opinion letters provide timely guidance to both employers and individuals as well as insight into the positions that the agency may take in potential rule proposals or litigation. Further, good-faith reliance on an opinion letter can be used as a defense by employers facing potential liability under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

During Sonderling’s tenure at the DOL in the first Trump administration, the use of opinion letters was brought back in full force after they were discontinued during the Obama administration. Indeed, the Trump administration’s WHD prioritized issuing opinion letters and issued them consistently from 2018 until the final days of the administration. Notably, the first Trump administration’s WHD issued 80 opinion letters. However, the use of opinion letters fell dramatically under the Biden administration, to just six as of this writing.

Sonderling was also instrumental in issuing opinion letters at the EEOC when he served as vice chair of the agency. In 2020, the EEOC issued its first opinion letter in over three decades, confirming that employers can use a particular tax credit for hiring individuals with disabilities, veterans, and other underrepresented workers without violating anti-discrimination laws. In fact, the last time the EEOC had issued an opinion letter was during the leadership of now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who chaired the EEOC from 1982 to 1990. In 2020, Sonderling played a key role in the EEOC’s new process to make requesting opinion letters easier and more straightforward.

Based on Sonderling’s record at the DOL and EEOC as well as his published work praising the use of opinion letters in the Missouri Law Review, one can expect the detailed opinion letters of the first Trump administration will make a return not only at the WHD, but also in agencies such as OFCCP and other agencies within the DOL.

3. DOL May Address AI, Cryptocurrency, and Other Technologies Impacting Businesses and the Workforce in a More Comprehensive and Impactful Manner

During his time as an EEOC Commissioner, Sonderling made addressing the use of AI in the workplace a key priority. Sonderling saw that workplaces were increasingly turning to AI tools to assist in making employment-related decisions and worked to provide clarity on how employers could utilize this new technology without running afoul of federal anti-discrimination laws.

With the inevitability of paradigm-shifting technologies entering every industry in the United States, we expect Sonderling to similarly prioritize providing comprehensive guidance in areas where AI is impacting the workforce and where other evolving technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, may find themselves in further use in the formal economy. Sonderling has consistently stressed the importance of enforcement agencies taking the lead to create an environment in which employers can feel comfortable implementing AI strategies and tools not only to be more efficient and productive but also to ensure our nation maintains a competitive edge in the global economy. Progress in this realm may be impeded by lack of guidance creating more risk of exposure and thus greater caution and less experimentation by industry.

4. Welcome News for Independent Contractors and the Gig Economy

Sonderling has a history of supporting independent contractors and providing clear guidance in this area. For instance, as the head of WHD, he issued WHD’s April 2019 “gig economy” opinion letter, which examined whether service providers for a virtual marketplace company were employees or independent contractors. The opinion letter examined the FLSA classification of service providers who used a virtual marketplace company to be referred to end-market consumers to whom the services were actually provided, and determined that the service providers appeared to be independent contractors and not employees of the virtual marketplace company. The gig economy opinion letter received a great deal of attention from practitioners, scholars, and even the media. In fact, the gig economy opinion letter was even featured above the fold on the front page of the New York Times. Even though the Biden administration withdrew this opinion letter, the analytical roadmap laid out in that opinion letter has been utilized by several federal courts.

5. A Return of Proactive Programs Such as Self-Audit Programs

Sonderling has long believed that voluntary compliance should be encouraged and incentivized. For instance, Sonderling was the acting head of the WHD when it launched its self-audit program known as the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) Program, which encouraged employers to self-audit their compensation practices for compliance with the FLSA. PAID was intended to resolve wage and hour disputes with greater expediency and lower costs for employers. To do so, PAID incentivized employers to self-report overtime and minimum wage violations of the FLSA by not only mitigating the threat of penalties and extended statute of limitations, but also foreclosing affected workers from taking any private action based on the identified violations. In exchange, the DOL would supervise settlements, approve agreements, and ensure full payment of back wages. Although the Biden administration discontinued the PAID Program, Sonderling may try to bring the program back or help launch similar programs.