Comment from Barbier International, Inc.

I support the proposed rule, as it will help harmonize and clarify federal regulations regarding the classification of Independent Contractors. As a CEO in the language industry, I am proud of the role that we play in supporting Americas economy, national security, and social services. The access that we provide to American companies for them to market their goods and services to multilingual and multicultural markets, here and abroad, is vital to our economic recovery. The language industry provides more than 160 million telephonic interpreting encounters per year in health care alone, making vital, lifesaving medical care accessible to more than 70 million Americans who speak a language other than English. And we support the Intelligence Community, domestic law enforcement, and the Department of Defense by providing interpreters and translators to a myriad of federal agencies.

We do this with a workforce that is 80% freelance, and has been so for more than 70 years. And the compensation we provide to our professional, educated, and middle-class workforce is well above the average annual income in the US. The median earnings of translators, according to the American Translators Association, is more than $80,000 per year. Finally, repeated third-party surveys of the workforce indicate that an overwhelming majority prefer the flexibility and freedom of being Independent Contractors.

Comment ID: WHD-2020-0007-0151 | 19-Oct-20

Categorized under Independence

Read the whole comment on Regulations.gov