Channeling their inner Hall & Oates, the Labor Department appealed a recent ruling by a New York federal judge that tried to invalidate the DOL’s new joint employer test.

What do I mean? I mean the DOL basically said, “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do).”

Taking a step back — but not all the way to 1981, when the Private Eyes album was released — the DOL enacted a new test for joint employment in March 2020., which you can read about here. But in September 2020, a federal judge in New York claimed the test was invalid. DOL: No can do. The ruling is now on appeal and will be heard by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Expect a decision sometime in 2021.

While conducting important background research for this blog post (which consisted entirely of me listening to Apple Music’s Yacht Rock Essentials on my Sunday morning run), it struck me how similar the Hall & Oates lyrics are to Meatloaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).”

Hall & Oates: I’ll do anything that you want me to do, Yeah, I’ll do anything that you want me to (ooh, yeah), but I can’t go for that, nooo (no). No can do.”

Meatloaf: I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that. No I won’t do that.

Am I overthinking this? Are they not that similar? It was cold out. And raining. And there was a steep hill I had to get up. So I was trying to focus on something other than my aging knees. Which were probably thinking no can do.

© 2020 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.