EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS PROGRAMS

The Wage and Hour Division at the Department of Labor enforces basic worker protection laws that cover virtually every American workplace and apply to nearly all workers. Enforcement responsibilities include the nation's minimum wage, overtime, child labor and other employment standards under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act and other basic worker protection statutes.

The FY 2009 budget request for the Wage and Hour Division is $193.1 million, a $17.4 million increase in current dollars over the FY 2008 appropriation and a $13.4 million increase when adjusted for inflation. The FY 2009 budget request for the Wage and Hour Division is 2.4 percent ($4.5 million) more than the Division’s funding level for FY 2001, in inflation-adjusted dollars. The budget proposes 1,283 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees for FY 2009, which is 75 more than were funded in FY 2008, but 176 fewer than were funded in FY 2001. 

Table 6. Comparison of FY 2001 and FY 2008 Appropriations and the FY 2009 Budget Request for the Wage and Hour Division
	FY 2001		FY 2008		FY 2009
	Appropriation	Inflation Adjusted Appropriation1	Appropriation	Inflation Adjusted Appropriation1	Budget Request
Funding2	$152.3 million	$188.6 million	$175.7million	$179.7 million	$193.1 million
FTEs	1,459		1,208		1,283
1 Inflation adjustment factors are derived from Table 10.1 Gross Domestic Product and Deflators Used in the Historical Tables: 1940-2013, Total Composite Outlay Deflators, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf 2$13.1 million in H1-B fraud fees were subtracted from the FY 2001 appropriation.

OFCCP: Federal Contractor Equal Employment Opportunity

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is responsible for administering a range of laws and executive orders that prohibit employment discrimination and require affirmative action by businesses contracting with the federal government. Collectively, these laws ban discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color, national origin, disability or veteran status.

The Bush Administration requests that the OFCCP be funded at $89.0 million for FY 2009. This funding level would represent a $6.2 million real increase from the FY 2008 appropriation but a $5.4 million cut from FY 2001, in inflation-adjusted dollars. The OFCCP budget proposes 585 FTEs for FY 2009, 204 (25.9 percent) fewer staff than in FY 2001.

Table 7. Comparison of FY 2001 and FY 2008 Appropriations and the FY 2009 Budget Request for the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs
	FY 2001		FY 2008		FY 2009
	Appropriation	Inflation Adjusted Appropriation1	Appropriation	Inflation Adjusted Appropriation1	Budget Request
Funding	$76.2 million	$ 94.4 million	$81.0 million	$82.9 million	$89.0 million
FTEs	789		585		585
1Inflation adjustment factors are derived from Table 10.1 Gross Domestic Product and Deflators Used in the Historical Tables: 1940-2013, Total Composite Outlay Deflators. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf

Labor Department Programs to Audit, Investigate and Prosecute Unions

The Bush Labor Department continues to seek funding increases in its FY 2009 budget for programs that audit, investigate and prosecute unions. Increases would go to the department’s Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), which has union oversight and investigation authority, receives and publishes statutorily required union reports, sets standards governing union elections and finances and conducts both civil and criminal investigations into unions’ finances and elections. The budget also announces that the Department will again introduce legislation to authorize the Department to impose civil monetary penalties for the enforcement of LMRDA reporting requirements.

The Department has also asked for increased funding for its Office of Inspector General (OIG), whose investigative authority, unlike other executive branch OIGs, goes beyond the agency itself to encompass "labor racketeering."

Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS)

The FY 2009 budget proposed for OLMS of $58.3 million represents a $13.3 million increase in funding from FY 2008 (an increase of $12.3 million in real dollars). This represents a 29.6 percent increase from FY 2008 (a 26.7 percent increase in real dollars) and an increase of 91.0 percent from FY 2001 (a 54.2 percent increase in real dollars). The OLMS budget proposes 369 FTEs for FY 2009, 107 more than were funded in FY 2001. This represents a 40.8 percent jump in FTEs from FY 2001.

Office of the Inspector General (OIG)

The FY 2009 budget requests that the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) be funded at $82.1 million, a $7.8 million increase in funding ($6.1 million after adjusting for inflation) from FY 2008. Of the $7.8 million additional dollars sought for the OIG, $1 million is requested to expand the OIG’s labor racketeering program.[1] The FY 2009 proposal represents a 20.6 percent increase in funding since FY 2001, in dollars adjusted for inflation. In addition, the president’s FY 2009 budget requests an additional 5 FTEs for the OIG, which would bring the number of FTEs in the OIG to 445 in FY 2009, 17 (4.0 percent) more than in FY 2001.