President Obama’s efforts to boost the minimum wage are making it more difficult to enjoy the great outdoors.
Companies that provide tour guides for people who like to hike, canoe and ride on horseback now may have to hike it out of public lands themselves, thanks to an executive order the president signed last year creating a $10.10 minimum wage for federal contractors.
The Labor Department says wilderness outfitter companies operating in the national parks qualify as “federal contractors” and are therefore subject to the rule.
That’s contrary to the common understanding of what a federal contractor is — a company being paid by the government to provide a product or service, such as building a road or supplying soldiers with boots.
The outfitters, by contrast, are writing checks to the government to get the permits they need to operate in public parks. But under the department’s new rules, that’s enough.
“We pay the government. The government doesn’t pay us,” said Dave Brown, executive director of the America Outdoors Association trade group.
Western lawmakers are trying to build support for an exception for the outfitters. A proposed bill named the Outdoor Recreation Enhancement Act, sponsored by Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, would include the outfitters under an existing exemption for ski lodges.
“These recreational businesses help millions of people experience our national parks each year. Their only connection to the federal government is a permit to be on federal lands, but the Department of Labor’s misguided rule will force many of the businesses to either close, move off public lands or operate with fewer workers,” Stewart told the Washington Examiner.
Supporters plan to try to attach the bill to a larger natural resources-related measure after the Christmas break. The legislation has 16 co-sponsors, all Republican.
The outfitters’ dilemma is a result of a 2014 executive order by President Obama establishing a $10.10 minimum wage for all federal contractors. The announcement was a mostly symbolic gesture of support for Democratic legislation to raise the national minimum wage, currently $7.25, by nearly the same amount. Federal contractors were already subject to other wage-related rules that require them to pay well above the national minimum.
The executive order defined a contractor as anyone who has signed “a contract or contract-like instrument for service” with the government. Late last year, the Labor Department released an official interpretation stating that “outfitter and guide permit agreements” with the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were included under that definition.
The increase in the minimum wage itself isn’t the problem for the outfitters, who mostly already pay at least that much, Brown said. But the executive order means they have to comply with the government’s overtime rules.
“We have a number of people that operate multi-day trips. The guides are out six or seven days at a time,” Brown said, claiming the guides are “well-compensated,” but properly documenting their hours is a major problem. Without the documentation, the companies could lose their permits.
Most of the companies are going to have to hire labor lawyers to navigate these and other issues related to being a federal contractor, Brown added. Many are small businesses that cannot afford it. Absent a change in the rule, many will have to stay away from public parks altogether.
A Labor Department spokesman declined to comment.
