U.S. Department of Labor history

1917: Labor Secretary William Wilson oversees a large expansion of federal control over private industry during World War I. The department creates more than 30 divisions, bureaus, and commissions to deal with wartime mobilization and new labor regulations.

A department history notes that this wartime agency "provides many ideas and models for the New Deal."4 1918: The growth of the female workforce during the war spurs the creation of the Department of Labor's Women in Industry division.

The Women's Bureau, a wartime agency which had been made a permanent bureau in 1920, promoted the welfare of working women, primarily through information dissemination.

One of the principal Departmental programs for fighting the Depression was the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which fought wage slashing on federal construction projects by requiring that contractors match local rates.

1932: President Herbert Hoover creates the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which is supposed to boost employment by providing billions of dollars of loans to businesses and cities.

In July 1933 she began a series of conferences on state labor legislation that continued annually for more that 20 years.

She also created the Bureau of Labor Standards in 1934 as a service agency and informational clearinghouse for state governments and other agencies to improve conditions of work.

1935: As part of the Social Security Act, Congress creates the federal-state unemployment insurance program.

The Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act of 1936 required that firms manufacturing goods for the government establish an 8-hour day and assure that the work would be done under safe and healthful conditions.

1937: The Supreme Court narrowly upholds the unemployment insurance system in its decision, Steward Machine Company v.

The 40-hour week has not changed since 1938, but the wage level has been raised numerous times and the coverage has broadened to include most salaried workers.

1946: The Employment Act is an effort at establishing Keynesian-style national economic management.

1949: President Truman reorganizes and strengthens the Department of Labor.

The FLSA was amended in 1955 to broaden coverage and raise the minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 per hour.

The Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959 required filing of reports on union funds with the Department of Labor, banned Communists from holding union office, and toughened restrictions on secondary boycotts by unions.

Under the Area Redevelopment Act of 1961 it provided training and assistance in regions of serious unemployment.

In 1962 the broader Manpower Development and Training Act gave the Department responsibility for identifying labor shortages, training the unemployed and sponsoring manpower research.

1963: The Manpower Administration is established to implement the growing array of programs for work training, employment security, and apprenticeship activities.

Through the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the independent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established to enforce non-discrimination in the nation's workplaces.

In 1969 the Job Corps, which provided training for needy youths, was shifted from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Department.

In 1970 the movement for a job safety and health law was successful, and the next year the Department established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to enforce rules, or oversee state-run programs, to protect against hazards in most of the nation's workplaces.

The Emergency Employment Act of 1971 provided 170,000 temporary public service jobs.

1 Jonathan Grossman, "The Origin of the United States Department of Labor," Department of Labor, March 1973, www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/dolorigabridge.htm.

1974: Congress enacts the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which results in a flood of regulations on employer pension plans.

1975: The Manpower Administration is renamed the Employment and Training Administration.

The Congress raised the minimum wage in stages to $2.30 an hour by January 1976 and coverage was initially extended to 1.5 million domestic workers.

Shultz set the general course which the Department followed until January 1977 and also helped formulate the Administration's economic policies.

In 1978 OSHA was joined by a sister agency, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, consisting largely of functions transferred from the Interior Department.

Amendments to the FLSA raised the minimum wage from $2.30 to $3.35 an hour by January 1, 1981, and farm workers were covered for the first time.

6 R. Benenson, "Federal Jobs Programs," CQ Researcher (Editorial Research Reports), December 24, 1982.

Replacing CETA in 1983 was the Job Training and Partnership Act (JTPA), which shifted significant decision-making and oversight from the federal level to the states while continuing to allow local officials to shape their own programs, subject to approval by special private industry councils.

1991: New Zealand's government enacts pro-market reforms to labor union laws, which remove many of the coercive elements of labor union rules common in industrial countries.

In January 1993 Robert B. Reich was appointed by President Bill Clinton, who was elected on a platform of "Putting People First" and reinvigorating the economy.

And see S. Kellam, "Worker Retraining," CQ Researcher (Editorial Research Reports), January 21, 1994.

MacLaury's article was originally published in A Historical Guide to the United States Government, Oxford University Press, 1998.

It initiated a "Work Force in the Year 2000" project to help make plans to meet future skilled labor needs.

2005: A study for the Small Business Administration finds that federal workforce regulations impose a compliance cost on employers of $106 billion, with half of the costs stemming from OSHA rules.17

2008: The recession prompts Congress to pass an array of expanded unemployment insurance benefits, with the effect that benefits in many states are ultimately extended to 99 weeks, or almost two years.

21 United States Department of Labor, "Unemployment Compensation: Federal-State Partnership," April 2010, p.2, www.workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/partnership.pdf.