Marketplace All-in-One A big year for fans of maple syrup
Mar 5, 2026
Kaylee Wells, a Marketplace reporter who covered maple syrup production in Middlefield, Ohio, shares scenes from a sugarbush and the farming process. Nancy Marshall-Genzer, Marketplace reporter focused on labor and policy, explains the Labor Department's proposed gig-worker classification rule. They discuss cold winters helping syrup season and the legal and economic questions around worker classification.
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Labor Rule Favors Employer Classification
- The Labor Department's proposed rule shifts classification toward worker control and profit-or-loss tests.
- Nancy Marshall-Genzer explains this standard tends to favor employers and will likely be challenged in court during the 60-day comment period.
Courts, Not Rules, Decide Gig Status
- Legal experts expect the rule to be litigated because courts ultimately decide worker status.
- Richard Reibstein says prior administration rules were effectively disregarded by courts, so this rule will likely face the same fate.
Family Taps 2,200 Trees To Make Syrup
- John Cermak and his family tap 2,200 maple trees on their 45-acre farm, collecting sap through hammered steel spouts.
- They report a tree can produce dozens of gallons of sap and it takes roughly 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.