Summary
The purpose of this post is to highlight something inside Project 2025 that I didn’t think about at first, and now I realize the dangerous precedent this could potentially set moving forward into the third quarter of 2025. You need to read an excerpt from the Mandate for Leadership, and it doesn’t take too long to read. 1
Excerpt
NLRA (National Labor Relations Act) waivers could affect:
- Workers’ right to form unions
- Collective bargaining protections
- Rules about employer interference in organizing
- Unfair labor practice protections
FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) waivers could affect:
- Minimum wage requirements
- Overtime pay rules
- Child labor protections
- Record-keeping requirements
The Critical Question: What “Certain Conditions” Mean
The proposal’s impact entirely depends on what Congress would define as acceptable under “certain conditions.” The text mentions some guardrails:
- Must “accomplish the purpose of the underlying law”
- Cannot “take away any current rights held by workers or employers”
- Time-limited to five years
- Subject to renewal/modification/cancellation
Potential Interpretations:
More restrictive interpretation: States could only waive specific procedural aspects while maintaining core protections (e.g., different overtime calculation methods but same total compensation requirements).
More permissive interpretation: States could potentially waive substantial portions of these laws, including minimum wage floors, if they claimed their alternative approach served the same “purpose.”
The Real Risk
Without seeing the specific legislative language that would implement this proposal, it’s unclear whether states could indeed pay less than the federal minimum wage. The phrase “waivers from federal labor laws like the NLRA and FLSA” is broad enough that it could potentially include minimum wage waivers, depending on how Congress wrote the implementing legislation.
The safeguards mentioned are quite vague and would depend entirely on how strictly they’re interpreted and enforced. So yes, this proposal could potentially open the door to states paying below the federal minimum wage if the “certain conditions” are defined broadly enough.
The Great Remigration
There is a new Remigration back to the southern states that many are writing about2, which is taking place in 2025. 3 The remigration consists of states that have no minimum wage state law on the books. 4
“Five states have not adopted a state minimum wage: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. Three states, Georgia, Oklahoma and Wyoming, have a minimum wage below $7.25 per hour. In all eight of these states, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour generally applies.”
– Congressional Black Caucus
Some of these states were formerly slave states: 5
As I mentioned on Twitter, we are at a wildcard moment in American history as a dangerous precedent is being set. Laws are being broken at this time without due process. Additionally, with the removal of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, who is to say if “black” people will be hired for jobs that help them move up in income?
The tax breaks are for those at a top-tier wealth level; you can view the infographic here. Some people may say, Well, just become a wealthy business owner. However, not everyone will make it to a certain tax bracket. Solution: take a flight or fight response to this madness.
References
- Project 2025 PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION PROJECT. (n.d.). https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
↩︎ - Frey, W. H. (2022, September 12). A “New Great Migration” is bringing Black Americans back to the South. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/a-new-great-migration-is-bringing-black-americans-back-to-the-south/#:~:text=The%20second%20phase%20of%20the,to%20experience%20Black%20out%2Dmigration.
↩︎ - The Great Migration (1910-1970). (2021, May 20). National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration
↩︎ - State Minimum Wage Laws. (2025). DOL. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state#:~:text=Mississippi.%20No%20state%20minimum%20wage%20law.%20Employers,Federal%20minimum%20wage%20of%20$7.25%20per%20hour.
↩︎ - General map of the United States, showing the area and extent of the free & slave-holding states, and the territories of the Union : also the boundary of the seceding states. (2015). The Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3701e.cw1020000/?r=-0.156,0.198,1.567,0.92,0
↩︎
Leave a Reply