Yesterday, along with the Families and Workers Fund, the U.S. Department of Labor convened leaders from federal, state and local government, labor unions and private sector organizations for our Good Jobs Summit.

June 23 marks the 50th anniversary of the day that Title IX of the Education Amendments was signed into law. What began as a series of hearings to explore the discrimination women faced at educational institutions grew into a movement for equal opportunity in classrooms, playing fields and boardrooms.

Twice a year, every federal agency, including the Department of Labor, releases a list of  the regulations they have under development, aka a regulatory agenda. On one level, it’s a snapshot of our current progress on the regulations that we’re working on, and a roadmap for the year ahead. But beneath the surface of every regulation is a story about workers — and our values.

The work of the Women’s Bureau focuses on the ways current gendered caregiving patterns limit opportunities for mothers, especially in relation to their earnings and economic security.

At the Office of Disability Employment Policy, we believe all people should feel comfortable bringing their full selves to work — and that conviction informs a lot of our work on the Employer and Workplace Policy team, where we educate employers about policies and best practices to build inclusive organizations.

Anna Friar had worked over seven years as a kitchen assistant manager and cook at Willowbrook Assisted Living in Lake City, Florida, when she became seriously ill from COVID-19. We launched an investigation into the company’s failure to offer job-protected leave and found that Anna should have been offered unpaid leave and job protection for the time she was dealing with COVID.

Across the country, workers are organizing with their co-workers and engaging in collective action to gain improvements in their jobs and workplaces. What can we learn from these recent organizing efforts? How do they fit in the broader history of worker organizing in the United States? And how can the Department of Labor support worker organizing to advance our mission of improving working conditions for all workers?  

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month. It was in June 1969 that the Stonewall Uprising occurred, considered by many to have sparked the modern LGBTQIA+ civil-rights movement. Here at the Department of Labor, we rang in Pride Month by doing something that has never been done before in the history of the department — raising the Pride flag at our national office.

We know robust social protection can make a difference in the fight to end child labor. When families have access to social supports, like unemployment benefits or in-kind food or cash programs, they are less likely to resort to child labor to weather a crisis such as a lost job, an injury or illness, or even a conflict or displacement.

To highlight our efforts to make sure farmworkers get the wages they earn, acting Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman is on the road this week in the Southeast region, one of America’s most productive agricultural areas.