The Ledger

All Domains

Domain 12

Labor, Contractor, and Employment Abuses

Wage theft, contractor fraud, labor violations, and employment discrimination.

24 entries

LABOR-020Tier 3Ongoing

Rigging the Gig Economy: Trump's DOL Rules Made It Easier to Classify Workers as Independent Contractors, Stripping Employee Protections

2021 - 2026

In January 2021, the Trump administration's Department of Labor finalized a rule that narrowed the test for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labo...

LABOR-014Tier 3Documented

Opposition to Paid Sick Leave and Family Leave: Trump Administration Regulations That Narrowed Worker Protections During COVID-19

2020 - 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration issued Department of Labor regulations that significantly narrowed the scope of paid sick leave and emergency family leave protections establishe...

LABOR-019Tier 3Documented

COVID Workplace Safety Failures: OSHA Refused Emergency Standards While Trump Ordered Meatpacking Plants to Remain Open

2020 - 2021

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration's Occupational Safety and Health Administration declined to issue any emergency temporary standards to protect workers from the virus, despite re...

LABOR-011Tier 5Active

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017: Legislation Marketed as Worker Relief That Primarily Benefited Corporations and the Wealthy

2017 - 2025

On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) into law, the most significant overhaul of the federal tax code since 1986. Trump and congressional Republicans promoted t...

LABOR-017Tier 3Documented

Rollback of Overtime and Tip Protections: Trump DOL Narrowed Worker Safeguards Benefiting Millions

2017 - 2019

The Trump administration's Department of Labor rolled back two significant Obama-era worker protections: a rule that would have extended overtime pay eligibility to more than four million additional w...

LABOR-009Tier 3Ongoing

Anti-Labor Record: NLRB Stacking, Minimum Wage Rollbacks, Erosion of Worker Protections, and Opposition to Organized Labor

2017 - 2026

Across both his first and second terms, Donald Trump compiled a documented record of actions that weakened organized labor, rolled back worker protections, and restructured the federal labor relations...

LABOR-010Tier 3Ongoing

Environmental Deregulation Harming Workers and Communities: EPA Rollbacks, Paris Climate Withdrawal, Weakened Emissions Standards, and Reduced Workplace Safety Enforcement

2017 - 2026

Across both terms of his presidency, Donald Trump pursued an aggressive program of environmental deregulation and weakened workplace safety enforcement that has had measurable impacts on workers, publ...

LABOR-021Tier 3Ongoing

Wages Are Too High, Too Low, and Irrelevant: Trump's Contradictory Positions on the Federal Minimum Wage While It Remained Frozen at $7.25

2015 - 2025

Over a period spanning a decade, Donald Trump took contradictory positions on whether the federal minimum wage should be raised, whether it was too high, whether it was too low, and whether it should ...

LABOR-024Tier 1Resolved

The Paint Spot: Small Business Forced to Litigate for $32,535 Owed by Trump National Doral Miami

2014 - 2017

In 2014, The Paint Spot, a small Miami-based paint supply company owned by Juan Carlos Enriquez, supplied paint and related materials for a renovation of Trump National Doral Miami, a golf resort owne...

LABOR-015Tier 1Resolved

Trump International Hotel Las Vegas: Years of Refusing to Bargain with Unionized Workers Despite NLRB Orders

2014 - 2018

Workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, a 64-story luxury hotel and condominium tower on the Las Vegas Strip, engaged in a multi-year fight for union representation and a collective bargai...

LABOR-005Tier 3Documented

Mar-a-Lago and Trump Properties: H-2B Visa Violations and Rejection of American Workers

2013 - 2019

Between 2013 and 2019, Trump-owned properties, primarily the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, repeatedly used the H-2B temporary visa program to hire foreign workers for seasonal positions as c...

LABOR-016Tier 4Documented

Ivanka Trump Clothing Line: Documented Sweatshop Conditions in Indonesian and Chinese Factories

2012 - 2018

Between 2016 and 2018, multiple investigations by journalists and workers' rights organizations documented labor abuses at overseas factories producing merchandise for the Ivanka Trump brand. The inve...

LABOR-022Tier 3Resolved

Andrew Tesoro: Architect Stiffed on $140,000 in Fees for Trump National Golf Club Westchester Clubhouse

2002 - 2006

In 2002, architect Andrew Tesoro was commissioned to design a new clubhouse at the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County, New York. The project spanned four years and was co...

LABOR-008Tier 4Documented

Undocumented Workers at Trump Golf Clubs: Years of Employment, Supervisors Providing Fake Documents, and Mass Firings

2000 - 2019

In December 2018, the New York Times reported that Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, had employed undocumented immigrants for years, with at least some supervisors aware of their imm...

LABOR-004Tier 4Agency Closed

Trump Model Management: Immigration Violations and Financial Exploitation of Foreign Models

1999 - 2017

Trump Model Management was a modeling agency founded in 1999 and operated under the Trump Organization umbrella until it closed in April 2017. The agency represented models primarily in New York and c...

LABOR-018Tier 1Resolved via Court Ruling

Attempted Eminent Domain Seizure of a Widow's Home: Trump Tried to Take Vera Coking's Property for a Casino Parking Lot

1993 - 1998

In the early 1990s, Donald Trump attempted to use the power of government eminent domain to seize the home of Vera Coking, an elderly widow in Atlantic City, New Jersey, so that he could demolish it a...

LABOR-007Tier 4Ongoing Pattern

Pattern of Unpaid Legal Counsel: Law Firms and Attorneys Alleging Nonpayment for Services

1990 - 2023

Multiple law firms and individual attorneys have publicly alleged that Donald Trump refused to pay legal bills for services rendered, a pattern that spans decades and extends through his presidency an...

LABOR-013Tier 3Documented

Anti-Union Practices Across Trump Properties: Union Busting in Las Vegas, the Taj Mahal Strike, and a Pattern of Preferring Non-Union Labor

1990 - 2024

Across multiple properties and decades, Donald Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in a documented pattern of opposing unionization, fighting existing union contracts, and preferring non-union la...

LABOR-023Tier 3Resolved

Freehold Music Center: Piano Dealer Forced to Accept 70 Cents on the Dollar for Trump Taj Mahal Supply Contract

1989 - 1990

In 1989, J. Michael Diehl, owner of the Freehold Music Center in Freehold, New Jersey, was contracted to supply approximately $100,000 worth of grand and upright pianos to the Trump Taj Mahal casino i...

LABOR-002Tier 1Settled

Polish Workers Lawsuit: Undocumented Demolition Workers Underpaid and Denied Union Benefits During Trump Tower Construction (Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons)

1980 - 1999

In early 1980, Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization contracted with Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc. to demolish the Bonwit Teller department store at 725 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, clearing th...

LABOR-003Tier 1Ongoing Pattern

Unpaid Contractors: Decades of Documented Non-Payment Across Hundreds of Vendors and Workers

1980 - 2024

A pattern of non-payment to contractors, vendors, and workers by Donald Trump and the Trump Organization has been documented across multiple decades and projects. The most comprehensive examination wa...

LABOR-012Tier 1Documented

Wage Theft and Labor Exploitation at Trump Properties: Documented Cases of Unpaid Overtime, Tip Confiscation, and Subminimum Wages

1980 - 2019

Across multiple decades, workers at Trump-branded properties have alleged, and in some cases proven through legal settlements and government investigations, that they were denied proper wages, forced ...

LABOR-006Tier 3Documented

Asbestos Denial: False Safety Claims Contradicting Federal Documentation at Trump Properties

1979 - 1997

Donald Trump made repeated public claims that asbestos was safe and that opposition to asbestos was driven by mob interests rather than health science. These claims contradicted federal environmental ...

LABOR-001Tier 1Resolved

DOJ Housing Discrimination: Federal Consent Decree for Systematic Racial Bias in Rental Properties

1973 - 1978

On October 15, 1973, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil rights suit in the Eastern District of New York against Fred C. Trump, Donald J. Trump, and Trump Management, Inc. The suit alleged sy...