The United States Department of Labor is a cabinet-level department of the U.S.
federal government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour
standards, unemployment insurance benefits, reemployment services, and
some economic statistics; many U.S. states also have such departments. The
department is headed by the U.S. Secretary of Labor.
The purpose of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the
welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United
States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable
employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights. In carrying out
this mission, the Department of Labor administers and enforces more than 180
federal laws and thousands of federal regulations. These mandates and the
regulations that implement them cover many workplace activities for about 10
million employers and 125 million workers.
The Department’s headquarters is housed in the Frances Perkins Building, named
in honor of Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 and
the first female cabinet secretary in U.S. history.
History The U.S. Congress first established a
Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1884 with the Bureau of Labor Act, to collect
information about labor and employment. This bureau was under the Department of
the Interior. The Bureau started collecting economic data in 1884, and
published their first report in 1886. Later, the Bureau of Labor became an
independent Department of Labor but lacked executive rank. It became a
bureau again within the Department of Commerce and Labor, which was
established February 15, 1903. President William Howard Taft signed the March 4,
1913, bill establishing the Department of Labor as a Cabinet-level Department.
William B. Wilson was appointed as the first Secretary of Labor on March 5,
1913 by President Wilson. Secretary Wilson chaired the first meeting of the
International Labour Organization in October 1919, even though the U.S. was
not yet a member. The Federal Employees' Compensation Act,
signed Sept. 7, 1916, provided benefits to workers who are injured or contract
illnesses in the workplace. The act established an agency responsible for
federal workers’ compensation, which was transferred to the Labor Department in
the 1940s and is today known as the Office of Workers' Compensation
Programs. Frances Perkins, the first female
cabinet member, was appointed to be Secretary of Labor by President
Roosevelt on March 4, 1933. Perkins served for 12 years, making her the
longest serving Secretary of Labor. During the John F. Kennedy
Administration, planning was undertaken to consolidate most of the department's
offices, then scattered around more than 20 locations. Construction on the "New
Labor Building" began in the mid‑1960s and finished in 1975. It was named in
honor of Perkins in 1980. President Lyndon Johnson asked Congress
to consider the idea of reuniting Commerce and Labor. He argued that the
two departments had similar goals and that they would have more efficient
channels of communication in a single department. However, Congress never
acted on it. In the 1970s, following the civil rights
movement, the Labor Department under Secretary George P. Shultz made a
concerted effort to promote racial diversity in unions.
During 2010 a local of the American Federation of Government Employees
stated their unhappiness that a longstanding flextime program reduced
under the George W. Bush administration had not been restored under the Obama
administration. Department officials said the program was modern and fair and
that it was part of ongoing contract negotiations with the local. In August
2010, the Partnership for Public Service ranked the Department of Labor 23rd out
of 31 large agencies in its annual "Best Places to Work in the Federal
Government" list. In December 2010, then-Department of Labor Secretary Hilda
Solis was named the Chair of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, of
which Labor has been a member since its beginnings in 1987.
In July 2011, the Department was rocked by the resignation of Ray Jefferson,
Assistant Secretary for VETS, in a contracting scandal.
On March 4, 2013, the Department began commemorating its centennial.
Tom Perez was appointed as Secretary of Labor on July 23, 2013. According to
remarks by Perez at his swearing-in ceremony, "Boiled down to its essence,
the Department of Labor is the department of opportunity."
Agencies of the U.S. Department of Labor Related legislation
See also Title 20 of the Code of Federal
Regulations Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
National Labor Relations Board Occupational Information Network
Ticket to Work Notes and references
Bibliography Lombardi, John. Labor's Voice in the
Cabinet: A History of the Department of Labor from Its Origins to 1921. New
York: Columbia University Press. External links
Official website U.S. Department of Labor in the Federal
Register Official blog
U.S. Department of Labor Historical Office
Summary of the Major Laws of the Department of Labor
Labor Certification Tracker: A Labor Certification tracker that lets users
share and discuss the details of their labor applications, reducing guesswork
and making it easier to estimate processing times.
Immigration links A list of frequently used links for employment-based
immigrants. United States Department of Labor
collected news and commentary at The Washington Post