President Donald Trump’s second term in office has been marked by rapid changes in the political winds and dramatic U-turns as he looks to align federal policy with his political agenda.

During Trump’s first 100 days in office, the new administration has moved swiftly to introduce a wave of new actions and guidances that upend a range of HR- and employment-related policies and protections of the last four years as well as long-standing compliance and enforcement norms.

From DEI to reproductive healthcare, the administration has leveraged the bully pulpit of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to change the way Americans work and do businesses. To help organizations and their HR teams monitor the regulatory changes and assess what work (if any) is required to remain compliant, and avoid the Eye of Sauron (and an investigation from the EEOC), HR Brew developed an ongoing policy tracker to help HR and their compliance teams stay up to date on the rapidly evolving landscape.

The tracker includes executive orders, guidance memos, regulations, and legislation relevant to HR professionals. While not all of these actions have the force of law, they provide an indication of where the Department of Labor and EEOC will focus their scrutiny under the Trump administration’s direction.

The administration’s unprecedented moves require HR teams to think about compliance a bit differently and brace for a host of government actions amid the spirit of the Trumpian approach to make America great again.

New policies

Executive order: Preparing Americans For High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs Of The Future

Details: As Trump seeks to bring American manufacturing jobs back to the US through aggressive tariff policies, the White House issued an executive order (EO) aimed at preparing the workforce to meet the “country’s reindustrialization needs” through opportunities to learn skilled trades. The EO calls on the secretaries of labor, commerce, and education to submit a report detailing opportunities to “address critical workforce needs and in-demand skills” of companies and industries investing in the US. It also asks for opportunities to upskill workers to “meet rapidly evolving skill demands of their industries,” including AI in the workplace, and strategies to identify alternatives to a four-year college degree that “can be mapped to the specific skill needs of prospective employers.”

Additionally, the EO calls for a plan to expand registered apprenticeships “to new industries and occupations.”

In context: For years US lawmakers have been seeking to improve federal workforce development programs. In 2024, House lawmakers voted to reauthorize the 2014 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), representing a bipartisan effort to streamline such programs, HR Brew previously reported.

Should meaningful changes to workforce development opportunities materialize from this EO, it could be relevant for HR pros that have made moves to drop college degree requirements in recent years, as well those seeking to build talent pipelines to help fill in-demand US-based jobs, such as those in semiconductor manufacturing.

Executive order: Restoring Equality Of Opportunity And Meritocracy

Details: In its latest move that appears to weaken diversity, equity, and inclusion policies across the government and in the private sector, the White House released an EO taking aim at disparate-impact liability. This concept holds that certain policies can be discriminatory if they disproportionately affect a group of people, even if they don’t appear discriminatory at first glance. In a workplace setting, this theory could apply to job applicant tests, for example.

The EO contends “disparate-impact liability has hindered businesses from making hiring and other employment decisions based on merit and skill, their needs, or the needs of their customers because of the specter that such a process might lead to disparate outcomes, and thus disparate-impact lawsuits.” It calls on the attorney general and the EEOC’s acting chair to assess any pending investigations, civil suits, or positions taken that rely on the theory of disparate-impact liability.

In context: While this order outlines the administration’s position against disparate-impact rules, it doesn’t nullify Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which protects employees and job-applicants against discrimination based on identifying factors including race, gender, and religious affiliation.

Private employers may still take on disparate-impact cases going forward, but the EEOC won’t pursue such cases on behalf of workers. Ayesha Whyte, managing partner at Dixon Whyte, a DC-area law firm, told HR Brew she expects the EO will weaken “protections against systemic discrimination.”

Guidance: What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work

EEOC | Department of Justice (DOJ) | March 19, 2025

Details: The EEOC issued a new guidance on its interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The guidance outlines avenues to help employees who worry they’ve faced DEI-related discrimination, but does not outline a new interpretation of these legal protections, so the overall impact remains unclear. Experts told HR Brew in March that the move is likely intended to serve as a chilling effect on wholly lawful DEI programs.

In context: DEI proponents and legal experts cautioned HR Brew readers in March from acting too swiftly in response to the new guidance, noting that it does not have the force of law. HR Brew is actively monitoring private sector moves to eliminate, reduce, or change internal company DEI policies and programs.

Guidance: Protecting American workers against “Anti-American bias”

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) | Feb. 19, 2025

Details: EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas announced agency intentions to aggressively pursue Title VII’s prohibition against national origin discrimination, which Lucas contends will pressure employers who “are part of the pipeline contributing to our immigration crisis or abusing our legal immigration system via illegal preferences against American workers.” Former EEOC leadership has generally pursued national origin discrimination cases against employers abusing immigrant workers, rather than those preferring immigrant workers to Americans.

In context: HR teams and employers who sponsor and hire employees on work visas, even legally, need to be cautious in following those legal requirements while also considering the EEOC’s new interpretation for national origin discrimination, suggesting increased scrutiny of those who “illegally prefer non-American workers, as well as against staffing agencies and other agents that unlawfully comply with client companies’ illegal preferences against American workers.”

Executive Order: Expanding Access to In Vitro Fertilization

White House | Feb. 18, 2025

Details: President Trump released an executive order calling on the assistant to the president for domestic policy to submit “a list of policy recommendations on protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment” within 90 days. There are no policy recommendations publicly available at the time of publication of this tracker.

In context: HR and employment law teams should monitor for these policy recommendations on or after May 19, 2025, which marks the end of the 90-day period.

Any action to meaningfully lower IVF treatment costs would likely require a congressional mandate that insurance plans cover it, Usha Ranji, KFF’s associate director for women’s health policy, told HR Brew.

Statement: Removing Gender Ideology and Restoring the EEOC’s Role of Protecting Women in the Workplace

EEOC | Jan. 28, 2025

Details: EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas published a press release detailing actions the agency has taken to comply with President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order outlining the administration’s restrictive, binary approach to sex and gender identity.

She laid out her opposition to harassment guidance published by the agency in 2024, and said the agency had started a review of its “Know Your Rights” poster.

In context: HR pros can expect changes to the EEOC’s “Know Your Rights” poster, which provides information to employees about employment practices that may be discriminatory under federal law.

Lucas also said one of her priorities is to focus on investigations and litigation with an eye toward defending “women’s rights to single-sex spaces at work.” She took issue with the 2024 harassment guidance which states that preventing an employee from accessing a bathroom consistent with their gender identity could constitute discriminatory harassment under Title VII.

The Trump administration has directed the EEOC to rescind the harassment guidance, but it doesn’t currently have the quorum required to do so. It’s also calling on agencies to “correct the misapplication” of Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court decision which protects LGBTQ+ workers and underpinned parts of the 2024 guidance. Bostock remains in effect, so while the EEOC may be less inclined to take up lawsuits alleging discrimination against LGBTQ+ workers, employees are still free to file them, HR Brew reported.

Executive Order: Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity

White House | Jan. 21, 2025

Details: In this executive order, the administration called out diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs, purporting that DEI or DEIA initiatives can violate federal civil rights laws.

The EO directs agencies to terminate any activities considered “discriminatory or illegal,” though it doesn’t provide further detail on the contexts in which such DEI programs would violate the law. It also revokes a number of EOs issued prior to Trump’s presidency, and takes aim at private-sector practices, as well.

In context: The EO calls on agencies to take actions to advance “the policy of individual initiative, excellence, and hard work” in the private sector. It also directs the attorney general to submit a report within 120 days detailing “key sectors of concern” within agencies’ jurisdictions, and asks agencies to identify publicly traded corporations or non-profits whose DEI practices can be investigated.

While the Trump administration made clear it intends to go after companies’ DEI initiatives, such programs are not necessarily illegal, HR Brew noted. “It will be up to each company to choose how it responds, but I would urge leaders to continue their lawful DE&I activities and not give in to bullies,” David Glasgow, a lawyer and executive director at the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at New York University School of Law, told HR Brew.

Legal challenges to this EO are currently making their way through the courts.

Executive Order: Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government

White House | Jan. 20, 2025

Details: The administration released an EO stating that US policy is “to recognize two sexes, male and female.” It calls on agencies to remove any messaging, policies, or regulations promoting “gender ideology,” defined in the EO as a concept that “replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity.”

The EO effectively denies recognition of people identifying as a gender other than male or female, such as transgender or non-binary. Federal agencies are being asked to enforce laws enshrining sex-based rights and protections under the administration’s definitions of sex and gender.

In context: While this EO doesn’t change the law, the Trump administration stated that it wants to change the way agencies enforce Title VII with regards to Bostock v. Clayton County, the 2020 Supreme Court decision that found discrimination against LGBTQ+ workers is illegal.

Both the EEOC and the Department of Labor (DOL) are expected to prioritize investigations and litigation regarding a right to “single-sex spaces in workplaces” under this order.

HR pros should keep an eye out for new agency guidance and resources to this end.

Rescinded policies

In addition to new and unique ways to interpret law or enforce regulations, the administration worked fast to gut policy priorities and orders delivered during the Biden Administration, meaning businesses and HR teams might also have to look at adjusting efforts from the previous four years.

Rescission, Executive Order: Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors

White House | Issued April 27, 2021, rescinded March 14, 2025

Details: President Biden published an EO calling on the Department of Labor (DOL) to issue regulations to raise the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour beginning January 2022, with annual scheduled increases after that. As a result of this EO, federal contractors are currently required to pay their employees $17.75 an hour.

In context: Regulations the DOL developed to carry out this EO are still in place, so the minimum wage for federal contractors won’t change until the Trump administration issues new ones, SHRM reported. Most experts believe the minimum wage will return to $13.30 per hour, which was set when President Barack Obama was in office.

Even though the Trump administration has indicated it will no longer require federal contractors to pay the $17.75 minimum wage, Greg Hare, an Atlanta-based employment attorney at Ogletree Deakins, cautioned against docking workers’ current pay. A more realistic solution, he told SHRM, would be to adopt a two-tiered wage system where “the folks coming in on the new contract might not be in the 17-dollar-per-hour range, but may be in the 13-dollar-per-hour range.”

Rescission: Certain General Counsel Memoranda

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) | Feb. 14, 2025

Details: William B. Cowen, acting general counsel of the NLRB, rescinded more than a dozen memoranda released by his predecessor Jennifer Abruzzo. Among those memoranda no longer in effect are a pair of documents suggesting non-compete agreements could violate federal labor law, and guidance concerning a board decision that said severance agreements violate the law when they require workers to “broadly waive their rights.”

In context: Although general counsel memos are nonbinding, the rescissions give some indication of the labor agenda a Republican-controlled NLRB would seek to carry out.

Abruzzo, the previous NLRB general counsel, spent much of her term reversing policies taken when Trump was president from 2017–2021, HR Brew reported. With Trump now serving a second term, compliance leaders may see the NLRB revert back to pro-business policies.

Rescission, Executive Order: Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence

White House | Issued Oct. 30, 2023, rescinded Jan. 20, 2025

Details: President Joe Biden released an EO aimed at regulating artificial intelligence (AI) directing federal agencies to develop standards for ensuring AI systems are “safe, secure, and trustworthy.”

The EO recognized that “AI is changing America’s jobs and workplaces,” and asked agencies to develop guidance for mitigating risks AI poses to workers, focusing on areas such as job displacement, workplace equity, and data collection and privacy, HR Brew reported.

In context: The Trump administration rescinded this EO on Jan. 20. It later released an EO asking agencies to review all actions taken to align with the Biden-era order, and to adapt to a new Trump-endorsed AI policy: “...to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.” HR pros should keep an eye out for new agency guidance and resources to this end.

Rescission, Executive Order: Advancing Economy, Efficiency, and Effectiveness in Federal Contracting by Promoting Pay Equity and Transparency

White House | Issued March 15, 2022, rescinded Jan. 20, 2025

Details: President Biden signed an EO seeking to ban federal contractors and subcontractors from using salary history when hiring workers, and determining how much to pay them. The Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council subsequently submitted a proposal to carry out this order. The proposal would have not only banned government contractors from considering salary history in the hiring process, but also required that they disclose the compensation they expected to offer in job openings.

In context: The Trump administration rescinded this EO on Jan. 20. By that time, however, FAR had already withdrawn its proposal, citing “limited time remaining in the current Administration.” While federal efforts to ban salary history have stalled, employers that hire government contractors must still consider local regulations, as at least 20 US states and Washington, DC, have enacted such bans.

Rescission, Executive Order: Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts

White House | Nov. 18, 2021, rescinded Jan. 20, 2025

Details: This Biden-era EO directed federal government contractors and subcontractors to hire qualified workers whose employment would otherwise be terminated in cases where one contract ends and a new one begins.

“Using a carryover work force reduces disruption in the delivery of services during the period of transition between contractors, maintains physical and information security, and provides the Federal Government with the benefits of an experienced and well-trained work force that is familiar with the Federal Government's personnel, facilities, and requirements,” the EO read.

In context: This EO was one of dozens that the Trump administration rescinded on Jan. 20, at the time the new president took office. The administration said the revocations were part of a broader effort to “restore common sense to the Federal Government and unleash the potential of the American citizen.”