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Wage and Hour and Federal Contractor Worker Protection Programs The Bush administration's FY 2006 budget requests a cut in inflation-adjusted dollars for the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) overall and a very small increase in funding for the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The FY 2006 budget for the U.S. Department of Labor's entire Employment
Standards Administration, which includes the WHD and OFCCP along with several
other Labor Department agencies, proposes a 162-employee increase in the number
of full-time equivalent positions (FTEs), bringing the total to 4,282 FTEs. It
appears that all of the additional FTEs requested are for the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program (114) and the Office of
Labor-Management Standards (48). WHD and OFCCP staffing would be cut over FY
2001 levels and FY 2005 requested levels. Wage and Hour: Basic Labor Standards Enforcement The WHD 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. As the labor force grows each year, as the economy shifts more toward
service-based industries and as wage and hour violations proliferate, more—not
fewer—resources should be devoted to enforcement. The FY 2006 budget request
for the WHD is $198.4 million, a slight increase ($2.9 million) in current
dollars over the FY 2005 appropriation but a real dollar cut ($1.1 million) when
adjusted for inflation. In addition, the request for 1,346 FTEs in FY 2006
represents a steady decline in staffing—a 12 percent cut since FY 2001 (when
staffing was at 1,528 FTE employees). Wage and Hour: Comparison of FY
2001 and FY 2005 Appropriations
The Labor Department says it intends to devote more funding in FY 2006 to the WHD's new "Overtime Security Task Force" and "Off the Clock Initiative" and to expanded enforcement of its "Youth Rules" initiative. In addition, more resources would go into increasing assistance to employers to secure voluntary compliance. Given the overall real dollar cut the Wage and Hour Division is absorbing, it is unclear what functions will be reduced in order to accommodate the expanded activities the Department of Labor describes. Last year witnessed the largest rollback of workers' overtime protections in the history of the FLSA, as the Bush administration moved ahead with regulatory changes that expand the white-collar exemptions from overtime coverage. Millions of workers lost their right to overtime pay as a result of these new regulations. The FY 2006 Bush budget proposes an even greater unraveling of overtime rights, calling for adoption of "comp time" and "flex time" legislation that would permit substitution of time off for overtime pay and would replace the 40-hour workweek with an 80-hour work period for purposes of computing overtime eligibility. The FLSA's 40-hour workweek is the only legislated mandate that discourages excessive hours of work for American workers and ensures fair pay for longer work hours. Replacing existing requirements with comp time and flex time would cut workers' pay, encourage employers to impose even longer hours and more overtime and undermine the 40-hour workweek, one of the nation's most family-friendly workplace policies. The proposed changes are completely unnecessary: The FLSA already permits many forms of work schedule flexibility; its only constraint is the requirement of overtime pay for hours in excess of 40. If the administration really wants to give workers greater flexibility and more time for their families, it should expand overtime protections, not weaken them with a scheme that would operate primarily to enhance flexibility and save money for employers. Commendably, the Labor Department's FY 2006 budget calls for increased civil
penalties for violations of wage and hour and related laws. We agree these
penalties should be increased, which will require congressional action in most
cases, and urge the Bush administration to work aggressively for these changes. 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. Bush proposes to fund OFCCP at $82.1 million in FY 2006. The FY 2006 proposal is a slight increase over the FY 2005 appropriation but a real dollar cut of $3 million from the beginning of President Bush's first term in FY 2001. The budget proposes 691 FTE employees for FY 2006, a 15 percent staffing cut since FY 2001, when OFCCP had 813 FTE employees. OFCCP: Comparison of FY 2001 and
FY 2005 Appropriations
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