Speeches by Secretary Elaine L. Chao

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“Protecting the 21^st Century Workforce”
Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
Society for Human Resource Management
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
June 25, 2002

Thank you, Sue, for those kind words, and for your leadership. The Society for Human Resource Management is fortunate to have you at the helm.

As many of you know, Sue worked at the Department of Labor early in her career. And because she has experience in both the public and private sectors, she really understands the impact that labor laws and regulations have on your profession. That makes her uniquely qualified to lead SHRM.

Like Sue, I also have these different perspectives—from being “inside” the government, to being in the private sector, and also being in the non-profit world. I’ve seen the inner-workings of government, close-up, but I’ve also worked in business.

This experience gives me a special appreciation for the work that all of you do.

I know that you are addressing, every day, the needs of the 21^st Century Workforce.

That’s one of my top priorities at the Department of Labor… and I know that no one knows better than you the challenges that workers face.

You know better than anyone how difficult it is for 21^st Century workers to balance work and family.

You know better than anyone you how the gap between worker skills and 21^st Century jobs is threatening our future productivity and, therefore, our economy.

And you know better than anyone how difficult it is to attract and retain quality employees… especially when putting together an attractive benefits package means facing double-digit increases in health-insurance costs.

Sharply rising health insurance premiums are a great concern for this administration, and we are dedicated to making sure that employers who provide health insurance are not exposed to increased litigation risks.

We also want to make health care more affordable and accessible through Association Health Plans.

Closing the skills gap is also a priority at the Department of Labor. We are working to achieve a closer correlation between the skills that workers are gaining through the Workforce Investment system and the actual jobs that are available in their communities.

Attracting and retaining quality employees is a challenge that we share in the federal government, where our senior tier of experienced career managers is heading into retirement.

The Department of Labor has benefited greatly from the institutional memory and know-how of these employees, and now we must face up to the task of attracting new talent to take their places as they retire.

That’s why we have initiated a number of new programs, internally, at the Department of Labor to reach far and wide for the best talent available.

Like you, I believe a diverse workforce is a strong workforce.

For that reason, we are working to attract and cultivate more Hispanic managers.

We offer a number of career enhancement events for African-American federal workers, and we just recently concluded a management training conference for Asian-Pacific American federal employees.

We’re also committed to tapping the talent pool of America’s veterans, many of whom have already received extensive management training during their military service.

I know that you all have similar programs at your workplaces… it’s all part of harnessing the power of the 21^st Century Workforce while we strive to meet its changing needs as well.

And that is also why I am announcing today a new initiative to replenish and strengthen the Department of Labor’s workforce—by attracting more MBA’s to work at the Department of Labor.

My experience in the private sector, in addition to my academic background as an MBA, is one of the reasons that I’m especially excited about this new employee-recruitment effort.

The idea behind the program is to bring in employees with an additional type of skills set so they can bring new approaches to managing the Department.

We are doing this in the spirit of President George W. Bush’s vision for a results-oriented, citizen-centered and market-based government.

It also fits extremely well with Department of Labor’s commitment to reach out to workers and employers as we seek to achieve the highest level of protection for our workforce.

Earlier this month I announced a Department-wide initiative to do just that: protect workers through compliance assistance.

This initiative is based on the proven success that comes when government, employers, unions and employees work together to ensure that worker protections work.

The key to this is to help employers and employees understand what our requirements are, and provide some assistance to achieve those standards.

There is a new culture of responsibility at the Department of Labor—a responsibility for us to help you understand our exhaustive list of rules and regulations.

Explaining our regulations—and explaining them clearly—has not been one of the Department’s strengths.

We intend to make it one.

The combination of compliance assistance and strong enforcement are, I believe, a powerful way to protect America’s workforce.

The change is taking place at two levels: first, the macro level, where we are embedding an over-arching change in culture and attitude at the Department.

Examples of the macro-level changes are the development of compliance materials in plain English, and on-line programs that answer common questions.

And we’ve created a new, toll-free call center—1-866-4-USA-DOL—whose sole purpose is answering the questions of employers and human resource managers like you.

Another macro-level example is the creation of a new, permanent, senior position: a Director of Compliance Assistance. This person’s job will be making sure that all of the Department’s agencies are doing everything they can to help employers comply with our regulations. This position will not be a political appointment… so its purpose will not change when the party of the administration changes.

The second level of this sweeping change is taking place, in detail, at the agency level. Each agency—from Wage and Hour to OSHA—is creating its own compliance assistance strategy.

We believe that enforcement and compliance assistance should be separate functions, with a firewall between them, to ensure that calls for help are never, ever treated as tips for enforcement.

Our fundamental goal is one that we share with every person in this room today: to protect employees.

The difference is that, now, we will also share the responsibility for that with you.

The truth is, we can’t protect workers through enforcement alone.

It would take 175 years for our Wage and Hour investigators to inspect every workplace in America. OSHA and other enforcement agencies face similar hurdles… because there are more than 7 million workplaces in the United States!

Instead, our goal is to affect every workplace in a positive way, through sharing information and offering a helping hand.

Our approach to the ergonomics issue is an example of this new compliance assistance approach.

Instead of issuing a rigid rule that would be very complicated, burdensome and quickly outdated, we proposed that employees, employers and OSHA should to work together to achieve ergonomic health for America’s workers. Industry-specific guidelines are already being developed with input from both employers and employees, as well as ergonomic scientists.

That is the best way to protect workers.

Another example of working together to protect workers is our Youth Rules! program. I appreciate the fact that SHRM is one of our partners in this effort.

The Youth Rules! initiative is designed to bring teens, parents, educators and employers together to promote positive, safe work experiences for all of America’s young workers. Through our work together, we will make sure that young people, their parents and their employers have a better understanding of the labor laws that apply to them—the hours youth can work, the jobs they can do, and the jobs they can’t do!

Helping you help workers is a top priority of the Department of Labor.

That’s why we will have a collaborative philosophy as we look at the “white collar” exemption rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act… and that will be a welcome change in itself.

The salary level test hasn’t been changed since 1975… which means that someone making $8,100 a year can, technically, qualify as an exempt executive.

Even worse, the salary basis and duties tests haven’t been updated since 1954—a time when the workplace was very, very different from what it is today!

Now there are more and more class action lawsuits over misclassification of jobs. In fact, those cases now outnumber Equal Employment Opportunity cases.

It’s not employers who are at fault, or employees—it’s a law that is completely behind the times and must be changed!

As the Department of Labor seeks to update these exemption rules, we will be doing so with two key things in mind:

1. New rules must reflect the reality of the 21^st Century workplace; and
2. New rules must be clear, simple and easy to apply.

In these efforts, I appreciate the input and professional expertise of all of you… SHRM has shared polling information that has really helped us understand what parts of this regulation need to be changed to make the decisions you face every day a litter easier… and a lot less subject to lawsuits.

The information you share with us is valuable because you are on the front lines. You face the challenges of the 21^st Century Workforce every day when you walk into your office. Every day you think about, and deal with:

• Balancing work and life;
• Closing the skills gap; and
• Attracting and retaining qualified employees with a benefits package that works for an increasingly mobile, fluid workface.

I appreciate and value your perspective. And I encourage you to keep sharing that perspective with government officials at all levels.

Thank you for your dedication to America’s workforce.

And don’t be afraid to call us. We’re listening and we really do want to help.

May God bless you, and may God bless America.

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