Democrats who routinely scold corporate America over workers rights are quietly channeling tens of millions of dollars in payroll through a firm accused by its own former employees of withholding wages and punishing workers who take family or medical leave.
According to Gateway Pundit, the controversy resurfaced this week after Libs of TikTok highlighted the arrangement and the mounting allegations against the payroll processor at the center of the storm. Libs of TikTok wrote: The DNC and ActBlue are running all their payments through a sketchy payroll company who were SUED by multiple employees for allegedly withholding pay. The company in question is Rippling, a San Francisco-based human-resources and payroll software provider operated by People Center, Inc., which has become a major conduit for Democratic campaign payroll.
As reported by the Washington Free Beacon and cited by Gateway Pundit, Federal Election Commission records show that the Democratic National Committee and ActBlue pushed roughly $23.3 million in payroll expenditures through Rippling during the 2026 election cycle. Those filings indicate that the DNC and ActBlue began using Rippling in the second quarter of 2025, embedding the firm deep inside the Democrats financial infrastructure even as serious accusations from former staffers were beginning to surface.
Behind this lucrative relationship lies a growing list of complaints from ex-employees who say Rippling flouted the very labor protections Democrats claim to champion. Former Rippling manager David Behar filed a lawsuit in California in February, alleging that the company fired him immediately after he exercised his legal right to take leave to bond with his newborn child. In a 54-page complaint, Behar accuses Rippling of interfering with his rights under the California Family Rights Act, retaliating against him for taking leave, wrongfully terminating him, and failing to prevent discrimination and retaliation.
Another former manager, engineer Fu Zhou, lodged similar claims in a separate lawsuit filed in March 2025, asserting that she was dismissed after taking medical leave for in?vitro fertilization treatments. According to Zhous complaint, the male employee who replaced her was also terminated shortly after signaling that he intended to take family leave, suggesting a broader hostility to workers attempting to use legally protected time off.
Rippling has a pattern of bias against employees exercising their rights to take family or medical leave, Zhou alleged in the lawsuit. That dispute was later steered into arbitration, a process that typically shields proceedings from public view and limits transparency into how such conflicts are resolved.
Rippling is also confronting a proposed class-action lawsuit from a former employee who claims the company required staff to perform unpaid work off the clock. The complaint further alleges that Rippling failed to pay certain wages and overtime and improperly withheld paid sick leave, with that case likewise reportedly moved toward arbitration rather than open court.
The company has flatly denied wrongdoing, and its legal team has stressed that no tribunal has yet found Rippling liable for any family- or medical-leave violations. An attorney representing the firm told the Free Beacon that Rippling could not comment on pending litigation but emphasized that the company has never settled a family- or medical-leave violation claim and has never been found liable for such a violation by a court or jury.
For now, all of the allegations remain unresolved, and no judge or jury has determined that Rippling is responsible for the conduct described in the complaints. Yet the cloud of litigation has not deterred prominent Democratic officials from showering the company with taxpayer-backed incentives and political business.
California Governor Gavin Newsom awarded Rippling approximately $12.7 million in tax credits in 2023 to expand its San Francisco headquarters, even as his party rails against corporate abuse of workers. New York Governor Kathy Hochuls administration followed suit, granting the firm another $7 million in incentives to grow its New York City operations, according to the Washington Free Beacon, cementing Ripplings favored status in blue-state economic policy.
These are the same Democrat leaders who routinely brand themselves as tireless defenders of paid family leave and worker protections. No one should have to choose between a paycheck and caring for their newborn child, Hochul previously said, a lofty promise that rings hollow when juxtaposed with the allegations swirling around a company entrusted with handling millions in Democratic payroll.
Unless, apparently, the accusations involve a politically connected vendor moving vast sums for the DNC and ActBlue, in which case the partys moral outrage appears to evaporate. The disconnect underscores a familiar pattern in progressive politics: strict rules and righteous rhetoric for everyone else, leniency and special treatment for allies who help fuel the campaign cash machine.
The revelations about Rippling come as ActBlue itself faces intensifying scrutiny on Capitol Hill over its fraud-prevention practices and its handling of potentially illegal foreign donations. As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, and House Oversight Chairman James Comer have threatened to hold ActBlue in contempt of Congress for allegedly withholding key documents from investigators.
ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones only deepened lawmakers concerns when she invoked the Fifth Amendment 22 times during a House hearing focused on fraudulent donations and the platforms representations to Congress. Her refusal to answer basic questions has fueled suspicions that the lefts premier fundraising engine is far less transparent and accountable than it demands private businesses be.
Now Americans are discovering that the Democratic fundraising apparatus and the DNC have routed tens of millions of dollars in payroll expenditures through a vendor facing serious accusations from its own former workers. So much for the party of working people.
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