Attorney General Ellison stands up against Trump Administration attacks on worker protections

In three comment letters to U.S. Department of Labor, AG Ellison joins states around the country in opposing Trump efforts to: eliminate federal minimum wage and overtime protections for domestic service workers; limit equal-opportunity initiatives in apprenticeship programs and usurp Minnesota anti-discrimination law; and roll back protections against exploitation and trafficking for foreign temporary agricultural workers

September 5, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison this week joined a number of states in three separate comment letters to the U.S. Department of Labor in opposition to rules that the Trump Administration has proposed that attack a variety of established protections for workers. Those comment letters oppose Trump Administration efforts to: eliminate the federal minimum wage and overtime protections for domestic service workers; limit equal-opportunity initiatives in apprenticeship programs and usurp Minnesota anti-discrimination law; and roll back protections against exploitation and trafficking for foreign temporary agricultural workers

“It’s already tough enough to afford your life, and the Trump Administration wants to make it even tougher by eliminating common-sense rules that help workers get paid a decent wage, advance in their careers, and protect them from being exploited — while handing our money to billionaires ,” Attorney General Ellison said. “I’m fighting these oppressive new rules because our economy is already too rigged in favor of the very wealthiest and it offends me that Trump wants to rig it even more. I’ll always stand with workers in the fight to make our economy fairer.”

Comment letter in opposition to eliminating federal minimum wage and overtime protections for domestic service workers

Attorney General Ellison joined a coalition of state agencies and other attorneys general in a comment letter opposing a USDOL proposal to eliminate federal minimum wage and overtime protections for domestic service workers. Minimum wage and overtime violations are common in the home health care industry, and USDOL’s proposed rule would exacerbate this problem, if adopted, by undoing these important wage-and-hour protections under federal law. The Trump Administration’s proposed rule would particularly harm home health care workers who provide essential services to elderly and disabled people. Under the existing rule, Minnesota home health care workers must be paid overtime (1.5 times the normal hourly wage) for working more than 40 hours a week, and eliminating this rule would cause the wages of Minnesotans who work in this critical industry to drop. (Minnesota employees already benefit from a state minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage and must receive overtime pay after working more than 48 hours per week.) Attorney General Ellison and the coalition urge USDOL to retain federal minimum wage and overtime requirements for this critical workforce.   

Approximately 115,000 people work as home health and personal care aides in Minnesota and their numbers are expected to grow to 130,000 by 2032. Nationally, the overwhelming majority of these workers are female and disproportionately people of color. Reducing their wages would undermine recruitment, retention and workforce development in the home health care industry, which would reduce the quality of care that elderly people and people with disabilities receive in Minnesota. 

Comment letter in opposition to limiting equal-opportunity initiatives in apprenticeship programs and usurping Minnesota anti-discrimination law

Attorney General Ellison and a coalition of state attorneys general submitted another comment letter in opposition to a proposed USDOL rule change that would control how states are able to ensure apprenticeship programs provide equal opportunities for applicants. Currently, under Minnesota and federal law, apprenticeship programs need to make proactive efforts to ensure individuals from all backgrounds have an opportunity to participate in their programs. The proposed rule change would contradict Minnesota law and would limit the Minnesota Department of Labor’s ability to ensure that all applicants and apprentices have an equal chance to participate in registered apprenticeship programs. 

Attorney General Ellison and the coalition argue that the Trump Administration’s proposed rule is based on an improper reading of a 2023 Supreme Court decision that struck down the ability of institutions of higher learning to consider an applicant’s race in making decisions about admissions. In the comment letter, they point out that these equal-opportunity initiatives in apprenticeship programs are designed to prevent discrimination by identifying where targeted outreach to underrepresented populations is necessary and specifically reject quotas in selection. They further argue the proposed rule undermines basic principles of federalism by improperly seeking to pre-empt any state anti-discrimination laws or regulations, even though state civil rights laws, such as the Minnesota Human Rights Act, that exceed the proposed regulation’s narrow nondiscrimination standards do not directly conflict with federal law.

Comment letter in opposition to rescinding established rule that protects foreign temporary agricultural workers

Finally, Attorney General Ellison this week led a coalition of 18 attorneys general in a comment letter in opposition to a new proposed Department of Labor rule that would largely rescind an existing 2024 rule that strengthened protections for workers with H-2A visas, who are foreign nationals who are temporarily here as agricultural workers. These workers are not immigrants to the United States: rather, they are citizens of other countries who intend to return to their countries after the work is done. They apply to work temporarily in U.S. agriculture: U.S. employers apply to the program and hire these workers for limited periods.

The protections in the existing rule — which are also intended to protect the wages and terms of employment for U.S.-based workers — were necessary because the rapid growth of the H-2A program resulted in exploitation of foreign temporary agricultural workers, unsafe housing and working conditions, and a prevalence of human and labor trafficking throughout the H-2A program.

With the new proposed rule, the Trump Administration is seeking to narrow or eliminate protections for these workers in the 2024 Final Rule by, among other things:

In the comment letter, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition he led argue the new proposed rule is arbitrary and capricious, makes regulations less clear in ways that will ultimately hinder enforcement, and in many instances fails to offer any reasonable rationale for eliminating these protections. They further argue that the proposed rule fails to fully analyze how the revisions will harm U.S. workers, including by lowering the wages of U.S. agricultural workers or using arbitrary standards to push out U.S. agricultural workers in favor of H-2A workers, whom employers can pay less.