HR Brew // Morning Brew // Update

March 11, 2026

Greetings, friends! Having trouble with a colleague or supervisor? New hires having issues fitting into the company culture? Have you tried a plushie monkey?

Currently all the rage in the captive animal kingdom community, there’s no word yet on adorable stuffed animal use inside the human workplace, but we’ve got our eyes on it…and on Punch and his journey in the Japanese zoo.

In today’s edition:

Rescinded rule

Growing gap

Degree data

—Courtney Vinopal, Kristen Parisi, Brianna Monsanto

COMPLIANCE

What’s good for the gig worker?

Getty Images

The latest pivot in a long back-and-forth over how employers should classify gig workers occurred late in February, when the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a rule to loosen the test for determining independent contractors.

The Trump administration intends to rescind a rule issued by President Joe Biden’s DOL that restored a “multifactor economic reality test” for determining when an employee should be an independent contractor, rather than a full-time worker. That rule directed businesses to take into account six different factors when evaluating workers, with no one factor taking precedence over another, HR Brew recently reported.

The DOL stopped applying the Biden-era rule in enforcement matters in May of last year. Should the proposed rule take effect, the DOL will officially return to an “economic reality” test that gives two central factors more weight than others: “The nature and degree of control over the work,” and “The worker’s opportunity for profit or loss based on initiative and/or investment.”

For more on what looser gig worker classification could mean for HR, keep reading here.—CV

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Try these free tools for your next hire, and see how much time you can take back.

DEI

Jump the gap

Business woman trying to walk with red bands holding her back.

Getty Images

After slowly closing for decades, the gender pay gap started to expand again in 2024. A new report from Glassdoor highlights where the gap widened the most, and what role employers can play in creating fair workplaces for women.

Women’s wages often level off after 35, largely due to structural issues they disproportionately face, including caregiver responsibilities, according to the report. As such, the pay gap grows the longer women are in the workforce, from roughly 12% at the start of their careers, to 19% a decade in, the report found. The gap is much smaller (4%) for men and women in similar roles.

However, women frequently “plateau” in their careers by their mid-30s, suggesting that fewer promotion and advancement opportunities are available or taken. Overall, this contributes to the 25% pay gap many experience after three decades in the workforce. Men tend to assume more responsibilities and higher positions, leading to even bigger pay disparities.

For more on Glassdoor’s findings, keep reading here.—KP

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Falling out of favor

Image of a member of Gen Z in a suit running away from a laptop.

Getty Images

Like cable television, Labubu dolls, and kids shouting “6-7,” computer science degrees may be slowly but surely going out of style with college students. However, tech leaders aren’t too worried about how they will lure future employees just yet.

The popularity of computer science degrees, once viewed as a ticket to a high-paying job, has seemingly begun to falter in recent years. Late last year, a Computing Research Association pulse survey, based on respondents from 130 academic institutions, found enrollment in bachelor’s degree programs for computing fell 62% in the 2025–2026 school year from the previous year. Meanwhile, data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that enrollment in similar programs fell 3.6% at Planning Accreditation Board-accredited undergraduate institutions in Fall 2025.

Dave Lewis, 1Password’s global advisory CISO, told IT Brew the new hesitancy among students is driven by the rise of AI and its disruptions to the labor market.

For more on what this trend may mean for the tech talent pipeline, keep reading on IT Brew.—BM

Together With LHH

Extinguish the bad-hire fire. We won’t name names, but you know which coworker was a bad hire. What you may not know is just how much that person costs your business. LHH’s guide explains the true disadvantage of your team’s weakest link, from cost to wasted time. Get it here.

WORK PERKS

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: A whopping 88% more federal employees have applied for retirement since the government last took inventory in October, with an additional 31,000 workers filing retirement claims last month. (Federal News Network)

Quote: “Special programs we ran for minorities at the firm were often counterproductive. That may be a provocation to other people. But I think if you brand something a remedial program, you’re kind of also branding the people who go into that program.”—former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein on DEI programs launched following the 2020 police murder of George Floyd. (Fortune)

Read: Big Four accounting and consulting firm KPMG is looking to employees to spark the next big innovations with AI inside the company, paying out to employees who showcase “an incredible thing that they’ve done with AI.” (Business Insider)

Bye-bye, bottlenecks: The Modern Hiring Toolkit from Spark Hire can help you hire smoothly. It’s a free tool made of custom GPTs that support recruiters in areas that tend to get messy. Give it a try.*

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No single keynote. No one-size-fits-all answers. Just practical conversations on the policies, people strategies, and workplace shifts everyone’s navigating right now. Come for the insights. Leave with something you can actually use.

Helping employees buy their first home

Francis Scialabba

As first-time homeownership declines, some employers are stepping in with financial education benefits. Here’s how Minted is supporting workers with homebuyer guidance to help make ownership more attainable.

Check it out

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Written by Courtney Vinopal, Kristen Parisi, Brianna Monsanto, and Adam DeRose

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