It didn’t take new Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta too long to determine that the expanded definition of joint-employer by the Obama-era Labor Department (DOL) was a dramatic overreach and to fix it. Earlier this week, Acosta announced that the DOL had withdrawn the joint employer guideline. Recall back in 2015 that David Weil, DOL Wage & Hour Administrator under President Obama, dramatically expanded the application of joint employer under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by incorporating an “economic realities” test as well as the level of control and supervision required to meet the joint employer threshold. That expansion made employers far more susceptible to allegations of wage-law violations. As welcome as this news is, it does not undo the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) joint-employer ruling – yet! As an independent agency, the NLRB expansion of the joint employer definition is still very much in play – but as we know, there are several court challenges to the new definition pending and the contract term of the General Counsel will expire in November. It may be completely moot soon enough, but individual states have been taking matters into their own hands to resolve the joint employer boondoggle – in 2015 three states passed joint-employer clarification laws; that number doubled in 2016 and now, only five months into 2017 eight states have passed laws already with two others about to put them on the books!