“As North Carolina’s Commissioner of Labor, my job is to execute the law — not make it and not stretch it. The General Assembly writes our statutes, the courts interpret them, and, as a member of the executive branch, we carry them out. I welcome the Supreme Court’s decision in Savage v. NCDOT as clear affirmation that state agencies are not to invent new meanings beyond the plain text of the law.

At the NC Department of Labor, that is exactly how we will operate. We will enforce the law as written. If a statute needs to be changed, we will take that case to the people’s representatives in the legislature, not try to rewrite it through policy memos.

This approach protects workers, gives small businesses the certainty they need to grow, and honors constitutional separation of powers. That’s how we keep North Carolina the safest place to work and the best place to do business.”

— Luke Farley, N.C. Commissioner of Labor