Biden pledges to form a “cabinet-level working group“ with representatives from labor unions that would, in the first 100 days of his administration, deliver a plan to “dramatically increase union density and address economic inequality.”

In addition, Biden supports Democratic bills that would establish minimum collective bargaining rights for public-sector employees and would would revive an Obama-era rule requiring additional disclosures for union-busting activities by management. (Biden might find it difficult to keep the latter promise, given that the rule was blocked by a federal judge in 2016.)

Biden says he would work with Congress to write a stricter law on employee misclassification, the practice of classifying a worker an independent contractor rather than an employee in order to avoid providing various mandatory benefits. Biden's bill mirrors one recently signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom that could dramatically change large sections of the “gig economy,“ such as Uber and Lyft. Biden would also curb the imposition in employee contracts of non-compete clauses and mandatory arbitration agreements that prevent workers from suing their employers for misdeeds such as sexual harassment.

Biden says he would restore and possibly expand an Obama-era rule that would have extended overtime eligibility to an additional 4.2 million workers. That regulation was enjoined by a federal court in Texas shortly before it was to take effect in December 2016. The Trump administration substituted a rule expanding overtime eligibility to 1.3 million workers.

Biden would increase the number of Labor Department employees who investigate wage theft, worker safety violations and worker misclassification. He would also require government contractors to pledge neutrality on employee unionization efforts, to pay $15 an hour and to provide “family sustaining benefits.”

Biden would impose a national ban on state right-to-work laws, which prevent unions from collecting "fair-share" fees from union non-members to cover their share of the costs of collective bargaining.

How would it work?

Like most of the candidates’ labor plans, Biden’s depends mainly on changes to the law, some of which Democrats have been seeking since passage of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. But changes to federal contracting and overtime requirements could be done administratively without approval from Congress.

What do other candidates support?

Biden’s labor plan largely aligns with that of other candidates, with a couple of notable omissions. There is no section on paid family leave; Biden has said he supports it generally, but he's rarely discussed it on the campaign trail. And he has no proposal to narrow or close the gender wage gap. Sen. Kamala Harris, by contrast, released an entire plan on equal pay, as did South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Eleanor Mueller and Rebecca Rainey contributed to this report.