Could a Prophet Be Confirmed to the US Department of Labor?

It’s a good thing Moses, the Old Testament’s most powerful advocate for oppressed workers, didn’t have to be confirmed by the US Senate. He would have faced a lot of opposition.

This Wednesday, October 7, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee will finally vote on the Obama administration’s labor department nominations of M. Patricia Smith for Solicitor of Labor (the senior attorney for the Department) and Lorelei Boylan for Wage and Hour Administrator. They were both nominated in the spring, and Smith’s confirmation hearing was held in May, a full five months ago. As important as Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis is in setting the tone and direction for the Department of Labor (DOL), the real nuts-and-bolts work of reinvigorating the department’s enforcement efforts around wage theft will be accomplished by these two critical positions.

The nation is facing a wage theft crime wave. Six weeks ago, the findings of the largest survey of low-wage workers ever conducted were released. “Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers” revealed that 26 percent of the low-wage workers surveyed were not paid the minimum wag,e and 76 percent of those who worked overtime were not paid time and a half—blatant violations of the law.
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At the start of the 21st century, America's workplace laws are failing to protect our country's workers. In industries ranging from construction and food manufacturing to restaurants, janitorial services and home health care, workers are enduring minimum wage and overtime violations, hazardous working conditions, discrimination, and retaliation for speaking up or trying to organize. They have little recourse because of their need for work, especially during the recession. Until now, however, advocates and policy makers lacked representative and reliable data on the magnitude of the problem, the workers who are most affected, and the industries that are the biggest culprits.
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