WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Larry Wittner, who serves as Executive Secretary of the Albany County AFL-CIO Central Labor Federation of Labor recently penned the following Labor Perspective that was published on the ZNetwork:

On June 6th, 2025, Donald Trump’s White House Staff issued an upbeat statement proclaiming that what it called the “Trump Effect” was creating “higher pay for American Workers.”

The reality, though, is that Trump, during his second term in office, has deliberately reduced the wages of millions of Workers and, despite substantial inflation, frozen the wages of millions more.

In March 2025, kicking off his assault on Workers’ wages, Trump rescinded a Biden Administration Executive Order that had increased the minimum wage that Federal contractors must pay their Workers who are employed in Government services.

These 400,000 Workers included Janitors in Federal buildings, Food Service Workers, Cashiers in gift shops and national parks, and Security Guards. 

Thanks to Trump’s action, the minimum wage for these Workers fell from $17.75 to $13.30 an hour, a 25% pay cut.

Workers directly employed by the Federal Government received particularly harsh treatment.

Shortly after taking office, the Trump Administration, through a combination of firings, bad-mouthing and pressures toward early retirement, inspired a mass exodus of over 300,000 Federal Workers from their jobs and incomes.

Furthermore, Trump deprived more than a million Federal Workers (a large majority of Union-represented Federal Employees) of their right to collective bargaining, which, among other things, severely limited their ability to secure higher wages.

In this context, Trump froze the wages of most Federal Employees for two years in a row.

Raising their pay, he said, would be “irresponsible.”

During 2026, the Trump Administration took additional action to lower the wages of American Workers - adopting policies that deprive Workers of wage, salary, and overtime protections by facilitating their misclassification as Independent Contractors rather than as Employees.

The Administration also rescinded another Biden-era regulation that made overtime pay available to increased numbers of Salaried Workers.

Consequently, 4.3 million Salaried Employees no longer qualify for the time-and-a-half pay for overtime work, a policy established by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

To Continue Reading This Labor Perspective, Go To: How Trump Has Lowered the Wages of American Workers - ZNetwork