Rep Mike Lawler wants to know if Hochul conducted any due diligence on Rippling before doling out tax breaks to the $16 billion firm
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D.) is facing heat from Congress over her embrace of Rippling, the human resources software company that has emerged as the Democratic Party’s top payroll vendor while allegedly fostering a “borderline barbaric” internal culture that penalizes employees who take paid family leave.
In a letter Wednesday, Rep. Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.) demanded Hochul disclose what sort of due diligence she conducted on Rippling and its leadership before she personally awarded $7 million in tax breaks in 2024 and 2025 to help the company build its New York City offices. Since then, Rippling has faced lawsuits from several former employees alleging violation of labor laws, including one former employee who accused the firm’s leadership in an ongoing lawsuit filed in February of “base, vile, and contemptible” conduct that culminated in the termination of his employment “immediately after he exercised his fundamental statutory right to bond with his newborn child.”
Amid those allegations, Rippling has emerged as a major player in the Democratic Party’s operational ecosystem, having processed more than $37 million in payroll expenditures for ActBlue, the Democratic National Committee, and other groups affiliated with the Democratic Party so far in the 2026 midterm elections. Rippling is valued at $16 billion, Lawler said in a press release.
“Reports indicate that you personally oversaw the awarding of $7 million in state tax subsidies to the multi-billion-dollar technology company to expand its New York City offices,” Lawler wrote in his letter to Hochul. “Those subsidies were granted despite what multiple former employees have alleged is a toxic workplace culture where workers are denied benefits to which they are legally entitled and are retaliated against when they speak out.”
Lawler’s letter cited Washington Free Beacon reporting in March on the various lawsuits against Rippling and its ties to Hochul, which, if the company had its way, would have never seen the light of day.
Prior to the publication of that story, the Free Beacon received a seven-page letter from Tom Clare, partner at the leading defamation firm Clare Locke, which is best known for its efforts to quash legitimate reporting about its high-profile clients. Clare demanded the Free Beacon “identify all its sources” in violation of basic journalistic principles and said Rippling “has not once settled a claim for violation of family and medical leave laws, nor has it ever been found liable of such a violation by a court or jury.”
Clare represented former NBC host Matt Lauer against #MeToo allegations and former Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler amid revelations of her close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. More recently, Clare represented former Harvard University president Claudine Gay as she threatened the New York Post with a defamation lawsuit as it sought to publish accurate reporting on her history of academic plagiarism (the Free Beacon and City Journal’s Christopher Rufo later broke that story, which ultimately led to Gay’s resignation).
The outcome of several of the lawsuits against Rippling remains unclear, as they have been moved to arbitration. That includes a March 2025 lawsuit from former Rippling engineering manager Fu Zhou, who alleged she was fired after taking medical leave to undergo IVF treatments, and a class-action lawsuit filed in February 2025 by a former Rippling employee who said the firm required workers to perform “off the clock” work without compensation. Several other Rippling employees have taken to Glassdoor to complain about the firm’s parental leave policies, with one former worker saying the firm’s refusal to provide paid leave for employees with less than a year of service is “borderline barbaric in today’s workplace culture.”
Rippling spokeswoman Deirdre Hussey said the company has “never terminated an employee for taking FMLA leave or any protected leave. Period. No court or agency has ever found otherwise. Rippling maintains a written anti-retaliation policy and stands behind it.”
Lawler questioned Hochul on why she doled out so many taxpayer funds to Rippling given that its cofounder and CEO, Parker Conrad, was previously forced out of his previous HR company, Zenefits, after New York regulators fined that company $1.2 million over widespread labor law violations.
“These reports raise concerns about whether companies receiving state support are meeting basic standards for employee treatment, and whether sufficient vetting occurred before public funds were committed,” Lawler wrote in his letter.
Hochul’s office declined to comment on Lawler’s letter or the allegations against Rippling.
“The decision to support job growth through performance-based tax credits doesn’t give anyone a free pass,” a Hochul spokesman told the Free Beacon. “Businesses that are choosing to grow in New York state must follow the laws here. Thanks to Governor Hochul, New York has some of the strongest worker protections in the country, including nation-leading safeguards for people seeking reproductive and family planning care—and that applies to every employer, no exceptions.”