United States Department of Labor
![]() Seal of the U.S. Department of Labor
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![]() Flag of the U.S. Department of Labor
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The Frances Perkins Building, which serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor. |
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Agency overview | |
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Formed | March 4, 1913[1] |
Headquarters | Frances Perkins Building 200 Constitution Avenue NW Washington, D.C., U.S. 38°53′33.13″N 77°0′51.94″W / 38.8925361°N 77.0144278°WCoordinates: 38°53′33.13″N 77°0′51.94″W / 38.8925361°N 77.0144278°W |
Employees | 17,450 (2014) |
Annual budget | $12.1 billion (FY 2012)[2] |
Agency executives | |
Website | www |
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) 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.[3]
Contents
History[edit]
The U.S. Congress first established a Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1884 with the Bureau of Labor Act,[4] 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.[5] 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 (the last day of his presidency), 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.[6] Secretary Wilson chaired the first meeting of the International Labour Organization in October 1919, even though the U.S. was not yet a member.[7]
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.[8]
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.[citation needed] 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.[9]
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.[10] Department officials said the program was modern and fair and that it was part of ongoing contract negotiations with the local.[10] 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.[11] In December 2010, then-Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was named the Chair of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness,[12] 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.[13][14][15]
On March 4, 2013, the Department began commemorating its centennial.[16]
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."[17]
Freedom of Information Act processing performance[edit]
In the latest Center for Effective Government analysis of 15 federal agencies which receive the most Freedom of Information Act (United States) (FOIA) requests, published in 2015 (using 2012 and 2013 data, the most recent years available), the Labor Department earned a D by scoring 63 out of a possible 100 points, i.e. did not earn a satisfactory overall grade.[18]
Agencies, Boards, Offices, Programs, Library and Corporation of the U.S. Department of Labor[edit]
Related legislation[edit]
- 1926: Railway Labor Act
- 1931: Davis-Bacon Act
- 1935: Social Security Act of 1935
- 1938: Fair Labor Standards Act
- 1946: Employment Act PL 79-304
- 1949: Fair Labor Standards Amendment PL 81-393
- 1953: Small Business Act PL 83-163
- 1954: Internal Revenue Code PL 83-591
- 1955: Fair Labor Standards Amendment PL 84-381
- 1958: Small Business Administration extension PL 85-536
- 1961: Fair Labor Standards Amendment PL 87-30
- 1961: Area Redevelopment Act PL 87-27
- 1962: Manpower Development and Training Act PL 87-415
- 1962: Public Welfare Amendments PL 87-543
- 1963: Amendments to National Defense Education Act PL 88-210
- 1964: Economic Opportunity Act PL 88-452
- 1965: Vocational Rehabilitation Act amended PL 89-333
- 1965: Executive Order 11246
- 1965: McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act
- 1966: Fair Labor Standards Amendment PL 89-601
- 1970: Occupational Safety and Health Act
- 1973: Comprehensive Employment and Training Act PL 93-203
- 1973: Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act PL 93-112
- 1974: Fair Labor Standards Amendment PL 93-259
- 1974: Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act PL 92-540
- 1974: Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) Pub.L. 93-406
- 1975: Revenue Adjustment Act (Earned Income Tax Credit) PL 94-12, 164
- 1976: Overhaul of vocational education programs PL 94-482
- 1976: Social Security Act Amendments (Aid to Day Care Centers) PL 94-401
- 1977: Fair Labor Standards Amendment PL 95-151
- 1977: Federal Mine Safety and Health Act
- 1978: Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act PL 95-523
- 1981: Budget Reconciliation Act PL 97-35
- 1982: Job Training Partnership Act PL 97-300
- 1983: Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act PL 99-603
- 1988: Family Support Act PL 100-485
- 1988: Employee Polygraph Protection Act
- 1989: Fair Labor Standards Amendment PL 101-157
- 1990: Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act PL 101-508
- 1993: Family and Medical Leave Act PL 103-3
- 1993: Omnibus Budget Reconciliation and Bankruptcy Act PL 103-66
- 1996: Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 PL 104-188
- 1996: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act PL 104-193
- 1996: Veterans Employment Opportunities Act PL 105-339
- 1998: Workforce Investment Act
See also[edit]
- Title 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- National Labor Relations Board
- Occupational Information Network (Holland Codes)
- Ticket to Work
Notes and references[edit]
- ^ "Chapter 1: Start-up of the Department and World War I, 1913-1921". History of the Department of Labor. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
- ^ "FY 2014 Department of Labor Budget in Brief" (PDF). U.S. Department of Labor. U.S. federal government. 2014.
- ^ APWU.org
- ^ Bureau of Labor Statistics
- ^ http://www.bls.gov/bls/history/commissioners/wright.htm
- ^ William Bauchop Wilson
- ^ http://www.iga.ucdavis.edu/Research/All-UC/conferences/2006-fall/Jensen.pdf
- ^ http://www.bls.gov/mlr/1991/09/art1full.pdf
- ^ Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 243. ISBN 0-465-04195-7.
- ^ a b Kamen, Al (2010-04-23). "AFGE pushes for flextime at Labor Department". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
- ^ "Best Places to Work > Overall Index Scores". Partnership for Public Service. 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ About USICH | United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH). Usich.gov (1987-07-22). Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
- ^ all.gov
- ^ "Raymond Jefferson leaves Labor Department after ethics finding". The Washington Post. 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ^ "McCaskill criticizes Labor Department contracting 'boondoggle' : News". Stltoday.com. 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ^ United States Department of Labor. Dol.gov. Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
- ^ "Remarks By Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, Swearing-In Ceremony". United States Department of Labor. 2013. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
- ^ Making the Grade: Access to Information Scorecard 2015 March 2015, 80 pages, Center for Effective Government, retrieved 21 March 2016
Bibliography[edit]
- Lombardi, John (1942). 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[edit]
- Official website
- U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General
- U.S. Department of Labor in the Federal Register
- 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.