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Department of Labor

The U.S department of Labor (DOL) takes care of occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics.  It is responsible for the welfare of U.S citizens in all the three stages of employment: job seekers, wage earners and retirees.  The DOL aims at developing policies to better working conditions, provide better employment opportunities and protect retirement/health care benefits.  It helps employers find the right individuals in the recruitment process.  The DOL strengthens free collective bargaining, and tracks changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements.

The DOL is a cabinet department of the U.S government.  The U.S Secretary of Labor heads the DOL.  The DOL was initially founded as the Bureau of Labor within the department of Interior.  After a series of shufflings, it gained its present status when President William Howard Taft signed the 1913 bill establishing the DOL as an independent cabinet department.

The headquarters of DOL is called the Frances Perkins Building in the honor of Frances Perkins[i], the first female cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

The DOL administers a number of federal labor laws that guarantee minimum daily wages, minimum overtime pay, rights against discrimination in the workplace, and income support in the form of unemployment insurance.

Department of Labor’s website

[i] Secretary of Labor from 1933–1945


Inside Department of Labor