Brian Dake

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) today issued two opinion letters addressing how the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applies to the commuter travel of employees who work part of their workday at home.

Opinion letters provide official written interpretations from the department’s enforcement agencies that address real-world questions from individuals or organizations. The letters explain how the laws the division enforces, including the FLSA, apply to specific factual circumstances and that may also help the public understand their rights and responsibilities.

“These opinion letters offer comprehensive guidance that allows employers to confidently make informed decisions regarding a wider variety of employee work arrangements,” said Wage and Hour Division Administrator Andrew Rogers. “By elucidating how the FLSA applies to various commuting situations, the division is enabling organizations to successfully implement compliant practices that support operational and employee needs, while ensuring that workers are properly compensated for all hours worked.”

The two opinion letters issued today are:

• FLSA2026-9: Whether mid-day travel between an employee’s home and work office is worktime that an employer must record and pay for under the FLSA, where the employee performs work at both locations and the mid-day travel is offered as a voluntary alternative to unpaid commuter travel that would otherwise occur before or after the employee’s workday.
• FLSA2026-10: Whether time spent by an employee receiving pages, calling clients and other workers to schedule appointments, and driving from home to the first client appointment is worktime that an employer must record and pay for under the FLSA.

In June 2025, the department announced the relaunch of the opinion letter program, which expands its longstanding commitment to providing meaningful compliance assistance that helps workers, employers, and other stakeholders understand how federal labor laws apply in specific workplace situations.

In collaboration with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced the suspension of 7,800 Wisconsin borrowers tied to $375 million in suspected fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) activity. The announcement comes as part of SBA’s ongoing state-by-state investigation into the abuse of taxpayer-funded programs intended to support small businesses and their workers during the pandemic.

To date, SBA has identified and suspended over 150,000 borrowers connected to over $10 billion in suspected PPP and COVID EIDL fraud. Suspended borrowers are prohibited from receiving future small business and disaster loans and are not eligible for other SBA programs, such as federal contracting in the 8(a) Business Development Program. Suspensions announced to date now include:

• 112,000 California borrowers tied to $8.6 billion in suspected fraud
• 27,000 Ohio borrowers tied to $1.1 billion in suspected fraud
• 6,900 Minnesota borrowers tied to $400 million in suspected fraud
• 1,500 Maine borrowers tied to $93 million in suspected fraud
• 7,800 Wisconsin borrowers tied to $375 million in suspected fraud.

In April, SBA launched its largest fraud enforcement action to date, and the largest referral package in agency history, by referring more than 560,000 suspected fraudulent borrowers tied to $22 billion in pandemic-era loans to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for collection.

President Donald Trump on Monday imposed 50% tariffs on most Canadian goods, declaring that Canada has unfairly discriminated against American autos, alcohol and dairy products.

The new 50% tariffs would exclude energy products, potash, fish and critical minerals, but they would include goods that had previously been protected from import taxes by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.

The White House said in a fact sheet that the tariffs would go into effect in 30 days, meaning there is time for negotiations.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement that his government believes in the “benefits of free and fair trade,” having signed “more than 20 new economic and security partnerships.” He said Canada is prepared to negotiate with the Trump administration.

“This trade dispute has raised costs for families, particularly in the U.S.,” Carney said. “Canada stands ready to engage intensively to address outstanding issues with the U.S. to the mutual benefit of our citizens.”

President Trump noted in his autos proclamation that Canada maintained, starting in April 2025, a 25% tariff on the imports of U.S. motor vehicles that did not qualify for preferential treatment under the USMCA.

The White House said that, regarding alcohol, all but two Canadian provinces and territories halted the purchase and retailing of American alcoholic beverages beginning last year.

But Trump has long objected to Canada’s treatment of U.S. cheese, saying in his proclamation that Canada discriminates against the U.S. compared to Europe on dairy products.

On Wednesday, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC), released the final Governor’s Task Force on Broadband Access annual report.

In 2020, Governor Evers created the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband Access through Executive Order #80 to advise the governor and Legislature on broadband actions, policies, and strategies to successfully expand high-speed internet in Wisconsin

According to the 2026 report, in the last year alone, 97,000 locations received new or improved broadband service that gave them access to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload (“100/20”) or faster internet for the first time. Additionally, Wisconsin saw an expansion of fiber, which has supported both new served locations and upgrades to existing served locations, with a total of 234,000 more locations able to access fiber compared to one year ago. Further, the broadband adoption rate in Wisconsin, meaning the number of households with internet subscriptions, has reached over 93 percent—the highest it has ever been.

The report also describes the status of various state and federal broadband expansion grant programs and identifies that approximately 31,000 locations are currently unserved, with no project in progress. The Task Force made recommendations to help connect the hardest-to-reach locations while also prioritizing internet affordability and adoption efforts.

In addition, the report also provides a comprehensive list of recommendations to continue building upon the state’s broadband expansion progress to date that focus on key themes, including infrastructure and future proofing, outreach, partnership, and accountability, workforce development, digital skills and sustained affordability, and emerging technologies

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said on Tuesday that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – declined 0.4% on a monthly basis in June and was up 3.5% from a year ago. The monthly decline was the largest since a 0.8% decrease in April 2020.

So-called core prices, which exclude volatile measurements of gasoline and groceries to better assess price growth trends, were unchanged from a month ago and up 2.6% from last year.

Energy prices fell 5.7% on a monthly basis – the energy index’s largest monthly decline since April 2020 – and are up 15.7% from a year ago. BLS noted that the energy index was the largest contributor to the decline in headline inflation, more than offsetting increases in indexes for food and housing.

Food prices rose 0.2% in June and are up 3% in the past year. The food at home index is 2.7% higher than a year ago, while the food away from home index is up 3.4% in the last year and both rose 0.2% on a monthly basis in June.

Housing prices rose 0.1% on a monthly basis, which was the smallest one-month change since January 2021, and are up 3.3% from a year ago. Tenants’ and household insurance costs rose 0.2% from a month ago and are up 5.9% in the last year.

A brand new report released by Forward Analytics finds that Wisconsin’s workforce has reached a tipping point: for the first time, healthcare and social assistance professions have surpassed manufacturing as the state’s largest employment sector.

From 2001 to 2025, manufacturing employment fell from 560,000 jobs to fewer than 460,000 today, while healthcare and social assistance employment grew from 321,000 to more than 463,000 over the same time period. Wisconsin joins the 46 other states that have made this transition, following national trends.

Manufacturing in Wisconsin is still a vital sector, employing nearly 460,000 workers at an average annual wage of $75,117 and contributing an estimated $74 billion to state GDP. The transition follows shifting demographics and economic patterns, driven by the needs of an aging population.

What the transition means for living standards, however, depends heavily on where growth within the healthcare sector occurs. Annual pay ranges from around $30,000 in social assistance to more than $92,000 in ambulatory care. The report finds that the lowest-paying sector — social assistance — has grown at the fastest rate, while higher-wage clinical roles lag behind. More concerningly, while the demand for nursing and residential care services has increased, the subsector most tied to Wisconsin’s aging population has seen a decrease of 5,000 jobs since 2019.

The Trump administration on Friday laid out a sweeping deregulatory plan to eliminate over 700 rules across federal agencies.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) released its 2026 regulatory plan which covered 702 deregulatory actions, an increase from 482 in the 2025 regulatory plan released by the Trump administration.

OIRA is part of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the agency indicated this year’s unified regulatory agenda aims to rollback rules impeding economic growth.

FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance is available to the state of Wisconsin to supplement recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, tornadoes and flooding from April 13-23, 2026.

The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Bayfield, Brown, Buffalo, Jackson, Jefferson, Juneau, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Marathon, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Racine, Rock, Sauk, Vernon, Washington, Waukesha, Waupaca and Winnebago counties and the Oneida Nation. Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and families recover from the effects of the disaster.

Federal funding is also available to state, tribal and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storms, tornadoes and flooding in Iowa, Jackson, Jefferson, Juneau, Kewaunee, Outagamie, Rock, Vernon and Waupaca counties and the Oneida Nation.

Individuals and families who sustained losses in the designated areas should first file claims with their insurance providers and then apply for assistance online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 1-800-621-3362 or by using the FEMA App.

Wisconsin’s peak power demand is projected to jump 40% over the next six years, largely driven by the massive data centers being built in the state.

That’s according to a draft of the latest biennial Strategic Energy Assessment released last week by the state Public Service Commission. The report, based on data provided by the utilities, shows peak demand will hit 20 gigawatts by 2032 – up from 14.2 GW this year.

About 4.17 GW of that projected increase — making up 72% of the demand spike — is attributed to three hyperscale data center developments in Beaver Dam, Port Washington and Mount Pleasant, the last of which was recently brought online by Microsoft. They’re located within the service areas of Alliant Energy and WEC Energy Group.

“These load forecasts illustrate the outsized impact data center development is anticipated to have on the energy landscape in Wisconsin in the coming years,” authors wrote.

The latest estimate shows a marked increase from the last SEA report, which acknowledged the role of data centers in driving up energy demand but forecasted a more modest increase. Utilities in 2024 projected peak electric demand to decline by about 5% from 2023 to 2024, followed by a 14.8% increase in demand through 2030.

Meanwhile, utilities are also planning substantially more natural gas generation to keep up with projected demand compared to the previous projections. The latest SEA shows electric providers plan 5,400 megawatts of new natural gas capacity or upgrades to existing natural gas facilities by 2032 — more than double the 2,500 MW planned by 2030 in the previous report.