President Donald Trump’s blizzard of 18 Biden-era executive order cancellations on March 14 includes orders that had raised the minimum wage for Federal contractors to $15 per hour, and created registered apprenticeship opportunities within the Federal government including for cybersecurity positions.
The president’s latest order brought the pile of cancelled Biden executive orders to more six dozen since January – following Trump’s first wave of rollbacks just days after returning to office.
Biden-era orders nixed in the latest round of cancellations include one that raised the minimum wage for Federal contractors who entered into new or renewed agreements with the Federal government since 2022.
They also included a Biden order that directed Federal agencies to incentivize the use of registered apprenticeships by Federal contractors – which resulted in several cyber-related programs overseen by the Department of Labor (DoL).
The order announced in March 2024 encouraged registered apprenticeships by directing Federal agencies to prioritize grant applicants and contractors that hired former apprentices. It also instructed agencies to expand their own apprenticeship programs and find additional pathways to the Federal workforce.
Registered apprenticeship programs have been touted as a pathway to the middle class by offering high wages and benefits without the debt of a college degree.
Preceding that order, successful programs helped expand the Federal cyber workforce – including the Biden administration’s “Cybersecurity Apprenticeship Sprint” in 2022 which created around 200 new cybersecurity registered apprenticeships and hired over 7,000 apprentices within 120 days of the program’s launch.
Last summer, the Biden administration touted connecting over 13,000 Americans with cyber apprenticeships nationwide while getting over 100 organizations to make voluntary commitments – which included $95 million in investments – that hired 13,000 workers and trained one million individuals in cyber-related fields.
The DoL also announced in July an investment of over $244 million from the Biden administration to modernize and expand registered apprenticeship programs, including those specifically in IT and cybersecurity among others.
While the registered apprenticeship initiatives and EO generated some successes, Biden’s order to raise the Federal minimum wage for contractors came under fire from some in industry and Republican-led states who filed suits over the order.
The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on whether Biden had the authority to impose a $15 minimum wage for Federal contractors, following mixed lower court rulings on his procurement power and the Labor Department’s rulemaking process – which left the wage increase largely in place.
However, Biden’s order and its recission will likely have limited effect on cyber contractors who tend to be contracted through professional services contracts – which were generally exempt from the $15 wage increase – with their rates typically determined by market rates and the specific terms of their contracts.
