This episode of America’s Work Force Union Podcast spotlighted Siobhan Standaert, a research analyst at Good Jobs First, a nonprofit focused on corporate accountability and labor rights. Standaert shared her unique background—from her roots in a commercial fishing family to leading a deckhand apprenticeship program with the Deep Sea Fishermen’s Union of the Pacific and then ultimately, joining Good Jobs First— to better understand her commitment to worker advocacy.
Standaert began by discussing recent findings from their Violation Tracker database. The database revealed that since 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and Occupational Safety and Health Administration have levied significantly fewer penalties for wage theft and workplace safety violations than in previous years. Specifically, wage penalties dropped by 94 percent and workplace health and safety penalties by 45 percent, far exceeding any prior administration’s reductions. These findings suggest a chilling decline in labor law enforcement, with fewer cases brought against companies for violating basic worker rights.
Next, Standaert discussed the current administration’s aggressive deregulatory agenda. Executive orders required agencies to cut regulations and shift priorities, giving employers increased leniency. Agencies such as the Wage and Hour Division stopped enforcing rules regarding misclassified workers, ended efforts to recover additional payments for affected workers and waived penalties for employers that self-report violations. OSHA, in particular, proposed significant rollbacks, threatening workers in industries with the highest health and safety risks. Standaert said these federal rollbacks are leading to a precarious environment for American workers and their rights.
To counteract these trends, Standaert advocated for state-level action and vigilance. She recommended that states pass stronger wage, safety and anti-discrimination standards, raise penalties to serve as real deterrents and bolster local enforcement to compensate for federal cutbacks. Good Jobs First will continue tracking federal enforcement trends, especially as more agencies—such as the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs—are threatened with closure or consolidation. As federal protections erode, state efforts and watchdog research become increasingly vital for defending the rights of America’s workforce.
For more from Standaert, listen to the full episode of the America’s Work Force Union Podcast above.