Labor Department

John Fritze has a must-read front-page story about a new Labor Department requirement that would compel businesses to increase the wages of their foreign, seasonal workers. The new rule could have a crippling effect on the seafood processors that have come to rely on these workers, some say. Here's the article , which has voices from the industry, politicians and advocates for the poor weighing in the new requirement, which is set to begin on Sept. 30. UPDATE: Mikulski takes her concerns directly to White House after Labor Department rebuff.

Maryland employers slashed 6,200 jobs in April, cutting short a string of gains, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday, as the state began feeling the pinch of federal budget sequestration and cutbacks in consumer spending. But the government's separate survey of households showed that Maryland's unemployment rate dropped to 6.5 percent in April from 6.6 percent a month earlier. The surveys of jobs and residents don't always move together, in part because Marylanders commuting across state lines or starting businesses don't affect the count of jobs.

In his attempt to prove why we don't need a Labor Department, Matt Patterson ("Why do we need a Labor Department?" Mar. 22) unwittingly demonstrates just the opposite. Free market advocates like Mr. Patterson love to lionize the business sector, and there are indeed government agencies and programs that support and promote the employer side of the labor market. Commerce and the Small Business Administration come to mind. Even the Agriculture Department is charged with, among other goals, expanding markets for American agricultural products.

WASHINGTON -- Democrats and Republicans quickly squared off Thursday over the confirmation of Labor Secretary nominee and Marylander Tom Perez -- preparing for a fight that is likely to intensify after a Senate committee voted along party lines to advance his nomination to the full Senate. House Democrats crafted a letter with 137 signatures to Senate leaders calling for a quick vote. "America's workers deserve a Labor Department operating at full capacity, especially as our economic recovery moves forward," Rep. Steny Hoyer, the Southern Maryland lawmaker and minority whip, said in a statement.

Maryland employers slashed 6,200 jobs in April, cutting short a string of gains, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday, as the state began feeling the pinch of federal budget sequestration and cutbacks in consumer spending. But the government's separate survey of households showed that Maryland's unemployment rate dropped to 6.5 percent in April from 6.6 percent a month earlier. The surveys of jobs and residents don't always move together, in part because Marylanders commuting across state lines or starting businesses don't affect the count of jobs.

THE THING about polls is that you almost always know how they're going to turn out.You ask, for instance, whether people would buy clothes from retailers who sold garments made in sweatshops. What do you think?Right. In a recent poll, 78 percent said they wouldn't.And 84 percent said that they'd pay a buck more for a $20 clothing item if they knew it wasn't made in a sweatshop.These are easy answers. Because, how do you know? None of the clothing I've seen is labeled "made with pride at your local sweatshop with slave labor."

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton will submit a $1.5 trillion federal budget today to boost economic growth, stimulate investment and cut the deficit.In a preview of the basic thrust of the fiscal 1994 budget, the Labor Department announced its own $40.4 billion budget yesterday. Emphasizing worker training and education, helping the unemployed, and cutting administrative costs, it was geared closely to the administration's economic priorities.The devil of tomorrow's budget will be in the details of discretionary spending, as departments identify which programs they are cutting, reducing, or boosting in line with the Clinton master plan for economic recovery.

If you thought your paycheck was buying less than it did before, you may be right on the mark. Wages and benefits for civilian employees rose last year at less than the rate of inflation for the first time in almost a decade, according to figures released by the Labor Department yesterday. Total compensation paid to civilian employees jumped 3.1 percent last year, while the costs of goods and services grew at 3.4 percent, according to the Labor Department. When inflation is considered, worker compensation fell 0.3 percent, marking the first decline since 1996.

The fight over the federal minimum wage is coming to Baltimore. The head of the U.S. Department of Labor plans to swing into town Tuesday to talk to low-wage workers about how they make — or don't make — ends meet. Seth D. Harris, the agency's acting secretary, has crisscrossed the country for such events since President Barack Obama proposed in February that the minimum be raised from $7.25 an hour to $9. "The president during the State of the Union said that it's an outrage that in the richest country on earth that people are working full time and still living in poverty," Harris said in a telephone interview Monday.

Towson Rehabilitation Center LLC, a Towson physical, occupational and speech therapy provider, must restore more than $29,000 in interest to the company's 401(k) retirement plan, according to a consent judgment obtained in federal court by the U.S. Labor Department. In a lawsuit filed last January, the labor department alleged that since January 2006, Towson Rehabilitation and CEO Howard Neels failed to pay employee contributions to the plan, paid some employee contributions late without interest and failed to segregate the plan's assets from the company's assets.

The fight over the federal minimum wage is coming to Baltimore. The head of the U.S. Department of Labor plans to swing into town Tuesday to talk to low-wage workers about how they make — or don't make — ends meet. Seth D. Harris, the agency's acting secretary, has crisscrossed the country for such events since President Barack Obama proposed in February that the minimum be raised from $7.25 an hour to $9. "The president during the State of the Union said that it's an outrage that in the richest country on earth that people are working full time and still living in poverty," Harris said in a telephone interview Monday.

In his attempt to prove why we don't need a Labor Department, Matt Patterson ("Why do we need a Labor Department?" Mar. 22) unwittingly demonstrates just the opposite. Free market advocates like Mr. Patterson love to lionize the business sector, and there are indeed government agencies and programs that support and promote the employer side of the labor market. Commerce and the Small Business Administration come to mind. Even the Agriculture Department is charged with, among other goals, expanding markets for American agricultural products.

As a businessman I read The Sun to be informed and educated, not for snide and misinformed comments such as those in commentator Matt Patterson's piece on the nomination of Thomas Perez as labor secretary ("Why do we need a labor department?" March 22). It was difficult to determine whether the author meant to be taken seriously. To suggest that we don't need an agency to look out for the interests of workers, when their jobs have so often been shipped overseas and their salaries are stagnant at a time of record corporate profits that primarily benefit shareholders, is simply foolish.

The Sun keeps trolling the depths for examples of right-wing thinking like that of Matt Patterson's recent commentary on the nomination of Thomas Perez for labor secretary ("Why do we need a labor department?" March 22). The best supervisor I ever had during my employment career, a man who exuded integrity, had a phrase to describe sub-par work: "Thin gruel. " Mr. Patterson's piece epitomizes those words. I would be the last to argue that bureaucracies can't become bloated. Any organization can. But that does not necessarily mean its purpose and goals are flawed.

Just as they did when Thomas E. Perez was nominated to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Republicans are seeking to hold up his confirmation to head the U.S. Department of Labor, using any excuse they can think up, no matter how flimsy. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama criticized Mr. Perez, a former Montgomery County councilman and Maryland labor secretary, for his one-time service on the board of CASA de Maryland. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa complained that the president had nominated Mr. Perez for a cabinet post despite a congressional investigation into the Civil Rights Division and questions about whether he engineered a quid pro quo with the city of St. Paul, Minn.

Senate Republicans criticized the nomination Monday of former state labor secretary Thomas E. Perez to lead the U.S. Department of Labor, signaling the longtime civil rights lawyer will face a contentious confirmation over his approach to the law and his record on immigration. Perez, the top civil rights attorney in the Justice Department, was nominated by President Barack Obama at a White House event that drew a host of supporters, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

WASHINGTON - A couple of hundred people rallied outside the U.S. Department of Labor here yesterday to protest the Bush administration's sweeping changes to overtime rules that opponents say could cost millions of Americans their right to overtime pay but advocates say will help clarify archaic and confusing rules. As the changes went into effect yesterday, labor and political activists in front of the Labor Department headquarters yelled, "First they send our jobs away, now they want to cut our pay," and carried signs that said, "Pres.

Hispanic and union leaders in Maryland applauded reports Sunday that Thomas E. Perez, a longtime civil rights attorney who led the state's labor department for two years, is poised to be nominated as secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor as early as this week. Perez, an assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, has an extensive political history in Maryland that began more than a decade ago when he became the first Latino to win a seat on the Montgomery County Council. The 51-year-old lives in Takoma Park.