U.S. Department of Labor

 Wage and Hour Division

November 2020
2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TAB 1: AGENCY ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW ........................................................ 1

TAB 2: STATE OF PLAY ...................................................................................................... 7

TAB 3: CALENDAR ............................................................................................................ 13

TAB 4: BUDGET.................................................................................................................. 14

TAB 5: AGENCY PERFORMANCE................................................................................... 18
TAB 1: Agency Organizational Overview

1

TAB 1: AGENCY ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

Mission

The Wage and Hour Division’s (WHD) mission is to promote and achieve compliance with labor 

standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the nation's workforce. For more information, 

please visit DOL.gov.

1

Authorizing Legislation

Major laws administered and enforced by WHD include the following statutes (for more 

information, visit DOL.gov2).

Public Law / Act Legislation Statute No. / US Code

PUB. L. 75-718 Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as 

amended. 29 U.S.C. 201-219

PUB. L. 74-846 Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, as 

amended (1936). 41 U.S.C. 6501-6511

PUB. L. 90-321 Consumer Credit Protection Act (Title III 

– Restriction on Garnishment) (1968). 15 U.S.C. 1671-1677

PUB. L. 87-581 Contract Work Hours and Safety 

Standards Act, as amended (1962). 40 U.S.C. 3701-3708

PUB. L. 89-286 McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act, 

as amended (1965). 41 U.S.C. 6701-6707

PUB. L. 71-798 Davis-Bacon Act, as amended and related 

acts (1931). 40 U.S.C. 3141-3148

PUB. L. 97-470 Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker 

Protection Act (1983). 29 U.S.C. 1801-1872

PUB. L. 99-603

PUB. L. 101-649

Immigration and Nationality Act, as 

amended by the Immigration Reform and 

Control Act.

8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(E), (H), 

1184(c), 1324b; 29 U.S.C. 1802, 

1813(a)

PUB. L. 100-347 Employee Polygraph Protection Act 

(1988). 29 U.S.C. 2001-2009

PUB. L. 103-3 Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. 29 U.S.C. 2601-2654

PUB. L. 105-277

American Competitiveness and Workforce 

Improvement Act (ACWIA), Title IV of 

the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency 

Supplemental Appropriation Act (1998).

Pub. L. 105, Title IV, Sec. 414(b) 

and (c)

PUB. L. 108-447

L-1 Visa and H-1B Visa Reform Act, Title 

IV of the Consolidated Appropriations Act 

(2005).

Pub. L. 108-447, Title IV, Sec. 

401-430

PUB. L. 89-209, 94-

462, and 99-164

National Foundation for the Arts and 

Humanities Act, as amended, Sections 

5(j), 5(k), 7(g), and 7(j) (1965).

20 U.S.C. 954 (m), (n) and 956 

(g), (j)

PUB. L. 116-127 Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Pub. L. 116-117, 29 U.S.C. 2601 

 1 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/about. 2 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/laws-and-regulations/laws.
TAB 1: Agency Organizational Overview

2

Public Law / Act Legislation Statute No. / US Code

PUB. L. 116-113 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement 

Implementation Act.

United States-Mexico-Canada 

Agreement Implementation Act

Organizational Structure

Organizational Chart
TAB 1: Agency Organizational Overview

3

Workforce At-A-Glance

Organizational Changes During the Past Four Years

On October 1, 2019, WHD’s National Office was reorganized to operate under one Deputy 

Administrator and five program offices. An SES position, Associate Administrator, now leads 

each of the program offices. Restructuring management to align with more effective national 

programs has provided such benefits as establishing a single program focus to improve operating 

plan goals, build internal consistency within each office, and reduce competing priorities among 

them. 
TAB 1: Agency Organizational Overview

4

Office of Regional Enforcement and Support 

The restructuring included eliminating the Office of Program Operations and the position of 

Deputy Administrator for Program Operations (SES, career). These positions have been 

replaced with the Office of Regional Enforcement and Support led by the Associate 

Administrator for Regional Enforcement and Support (SES, career). This Associate 

Administrator is dedicated to supporting all five Regional Administrators (SES, career) and 

coordinating all field enforcement activities including investigations, litigation, and compliance 

assistance. The restructuring also eliminated the Division of Enforcement Strategy and Support 

(including the GS-15 supervisor position). These functions have been disseminated throughout 

the other offices. Please visit DOL.gov for the latest directory of Key Personnel. 

Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics

The new Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics is led by an SES (career). This Office oversees 

the agency’s strategies for the collection, processing, storage, and dissemination of WHD data 

assets as well as external data. It designs and develops data analytics products and services to 

support a wide range of programs across the agency to improve decision-making and identify 

opportunities for process improvements and efficiency gains. It leads efforts to use data as a 

strategic asset at all levels of the agency, through staff training on the use of data visualization 

and reporting tools to aid workload management, establishing standardized data management 

practices, and collaborating with other DOL components and federal agencies to share data. It 

also leads agency efforts to leverage advanced data science and statistical techniques to forecast 

agency performance and increase insight into the behaviors of relevant labor markets. This 

office promotes transparency and supports open data standards by identifying high value data 

that can be made available publicly in structured, machine-readable format to meet the needs of a 

variety of customers, including academic researchers, industry and governmental officials, and 

other stakeholders. 

To establish this office, WHD restructured the Office of Government Contracts, returning the 

government contracts enforcement function to the Office of Policy to be managed alongside the 

other enforcement programs. This shift recognizes the Service Contract Act and Davis Bacon 

Act wage determinations program as a data strategy, comprised of the principle components of 

all organizational data strategies–to collect, process, and disseminate data. By co-locating this 

data strategy with the data management function, the agency seeks to improve the transparency, 

integrity, and methodological rigor of the wage survey and publication process: goals that align 

with the Federal Data Strategy and the Foundations for Evidence Policy-making Act of 2018. 

The Office consists of the Division of Data Analytics and the Division of Wage Determinations. 

Furthermore, within the Division of Wage Determinations, the agency consolidated surveying 

Davis-Bacon wage rates currently performed by the field, establishing for the first time a formal 

Branch of Wage Surveys at the national level. This not only brings cohesion and standardization 

to the survey program, it frees up regional resources and allows the regions to place a greater 

emphasis on work related to the agency’s core mission. 

Office of Policy

The Office of Policy is led by a career Associate Administrator. There is one Deputy to oversee 

the Office’s diverse Divisions, which include the Division of Regulations, Legislation, and 
TAB 1: Agency Organizational Overview

5

Interpretations (DRLI); the Division of Fair Labor Standards Act and Child Labor (FLSA/CL); 

the Division of Immigration and Farm Labor (IMM/FL); the Division of Family and Medical 

Leave Act and Section 14(c) (FMLA/14(c)); and the Division of Government Contracts 

Enforcement (DGCE). The DGCE was added to the Office of Policy with the FY 2020 

restructure, which eliminated the Office of Government Contracts. This has further aligned 

policy and enforcement related to government contracts. 

The Office of Policy is responsible for the development and dissemination of policy and 

procedural guidance in all areas of law administered and enforced by WHD. The Office of 

Policy functions as a hub for the agency by supporting the field in strategic enforcement, 

developing regulations, writing and disseminating field guidance materials, facilitating decisionmaking on the most complex policy issues, and partnering with Planning, Training, and others in 

their key functions. The Office of Policy represents WHD on policy and procedural issues with 

external stakeholders and internal customers.

Office of Performance and Communications

In addition to the Division of Communications and the Division of Strategic Planning and 

Performance, the office includes the Branch of Training and Education, which previously resided 

under the Office of Administrative Operations. This better aligns performance and internal 

communications with internal training. 

The restructure has also created a new Division of Certificate Processing under this office, 

consolidating processing of certificates under sections 11(d) and 14(a), (b), and (c) of the Fair 

Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and certificates provided to individuals to serve as farm labor 

contractors. Previously, certificate personnel in the regions implemented the policy and reported 

to the respective Regional Administrators while carrying out policy and protocols of the National 

Office. This certificate work is outside of the core function of civil-law enforcement and 

compliance assistance, which is the focus in the regions. Consolidating the certificate functions 

under the National Office allows for eventual cross-training of staff to process certificate 

programs WHD administers and better aligns the certificate processing with policy 

implementation.

Office of Administrative Operations

In light of the Department’s Enterprise-wide Shared Services Initiative, the Division of 

Information Technology was absorbed under the Office of the Assistant Secretary for 

Administration and Management’s (OASAM’s) Office of Chief Information Officer (OCIO). 

As a result, the WHD Division for Business Transformation and Product Management was 

created. This division works to identify business process improvements, and develops product 

strategy, roadmaps, and requirements to successfully implement solutions in alignment with 

agency priorities and operating plans. It ensures alignment of the agency’s business needs 

with available information technology (IT) solutions (while working with OCIO) that improve 

the Agency’s ability to meets its mission and achieve its performance goals.

The restructuring also led to consolidating processing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 

requests under the Office of Administrative Operations. WHD has consolidated the FOIA 

function in the National Office while retaining the nationwide deployment of FOIA staff, 
TAB 1: Agency Organizational Overview

6

allowing for maximum flexibility, improved oversight, consistency in records disclosure, and 

enhanced efficiency.

Key Leaders 

• Cheryl M. Stanton, Administrator

• Susan Boone, Deputy Administrator

• Michael Stojsavljevich, Chief of Staff

• Sheng Li, Senior Policy Advisor

• Leif Olson, Senior Policy Advisor

• Mateo Forero, Policy Advisor

• Lee Ann Dunbar, Associate Administrator for Regional Enforcement and Support

• Michele R King, Acting Associate Administrator for Policy

• Brandon Brown, Associate Administrator for Enterprise Data and Analytics

• Michael Kravitz, Associate Administrator for Performance and Communications

• Rachel Torres, Associate Administrator for Administrative Operations
TAB 2: State of Play

7

TAB 2: STATE OF PLAY 

Key Meetings, Decisions, and Announcements

In April or May of 2021, the agency will hold its annual Spring Executive Leadership Team 

meeting to set priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. 

Construction Surveys to Determine Wage Rates

Federally financed or assisted construction projects subject to the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts 

(DBRA) must contain a prevailing wage determination. The agency has planned surveys for the 

following areas to determine wage rates and plans to publicly announce dates for those surveys 

in November. 

Region Survey Type State

SW Building and Heavy (Metro 

Counties) New Mexico

NE Statewide Building Connecticut

NE Building (Select Counties) New York

W Statewide All Types Guam

NE Statewide Highway Virginia

SE Statewide Residential North Carolina

SE Statewide Residential South Carolina

SE Statewide Highway Alabama

MW Statewide Highway Kansas

W Statewide Residential Alaska

Policy and Regulatory Issues 

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, Request for Information 

Next steps: reviewing comments

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible employees up to 12 workweeks of 

unpaid leave a year, and requires group health benefits to be maintained during the leave as if 

employees continued to work instead of taking leave. Employees are also entitled to return to 

their same or an equivalent job at the end of their FMLA leave. 

The FMLA also provides certain military family leave entitlements. Eligible employees may 

take FMLA leave for specified reasons related to certain military deployments of their family 

members. Additionally, they may take up to 26 weeks of FMLA leave in a single 12-month 

period to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness. 
TAB 2: State of Play

8

In July 2020, The Department published a Request for Information to solicit comments on ways 

to improve its regulations under the FMLA to (a) better protect and suit the needs of workers; 

and (b) reduce administrative and compliance burdens on employers. 

Modernizing Section 3(m) Regulations, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 

FLSA section 3(m) defines “wage” to include the reasonable cost to the employer of furnishing 

board, lodging, or other facilities. WHD’s regulations in 29 CFR part 531 interpret the meaning 

of this provision, but aspects of these regulations do not provide adequate clarity and are out of 

date. The Department proposes to update part 531 to provide greater clarity on the meaning of 

other facilities and better guidance for complying with the FLSA in the 21st century workplace. 

Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking 

In June 2020, the Department of Labor proposed a regulation for determining independent 

contractor status under the FLSA.

Tip Regulations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Final Rule 

In the FY 2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congress amended multiple provisions of the 

FLSA with respect to an employer’s use of employees’ tips and additionally provided that 

portions of the Department’s 2011 rule regarding tips shall have no further force or effect until 

any future action taken by the Department. In this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the 

Department proposed to align its regulations with the recent statutory changes. Additionally, the 

Department proposed to revise the existing “dual jobs” regulation to provide greater clarity, 

consistent with current guidance, regarding an employer's ability to take a tip credit to satisfy 

minimum wage obligations for time a tipped employee spends performing duties that are related 

to the employee’s tipped occupation.

On December 9, 2019, the Department announced an extension to the period for submitting 

written comments on the NPRM entitled “Tip Regulations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act 

(FLSA).” The Department is currently reviewing comments.

Major Policy in the Past Four Years

• In June 2017, WHD announced it was reinstating the practice of issuing opinion letters.

3 An 

opinion letter is an official written opinion by WHD on how a particular law it enforces 

applies in specific circumstances presented by a worker, business, or other entity requesting 

the opinion. Opinion letters are designed to help the public understand their rights and 

responsibilities under the law. Although opinion letters are fact-bound legal interpretations, 

WHD writes every opinion letter with the goal of providing thorough, comprehensive 

guidance for the public on the specific legal principles that are implicated in the letter. These 

crucial compliance assistance documents help the public more fully understand their rights 

and duties under federal law.

 3 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/opinion-letters/search.
TAB 2: State of Play

9

• In 2018, WHD launched the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program, a 

compliance assistance-based self-audit tool for good faith employers to proactively resolve 

potential FLSA violations. WHD released a report on the PAID program4 showing 

promising results over the last couple of years in achieving the initiative’s intended goals of 

bringing more employers into compliance and getting wages back to the workers who earned 

them. The program design and implementation are built on existing protocols and practices 

and involve a significant outreach effort. The agency will continue using and evaluating selfaudits, consistent with the goals, priorities, and data-driven practices of the agency. Effective 

use of these tools has always been critical to the mission, and increasingly, agency decisions 

require strong data analytics and evolving skill sets.

• On September 27, 2019, WHD published the Overtime Final Rule,

5 resulting in 1.3 million 

workers who will be newly eligible for overtime pay. 

• On December 16, 2019, WHD published the Regular Rate Final Rule,

6 clarifying for 

stakeholders certain types of perks and payments that may be excluded from the regular rate 

of pay for overtime computation purposes. 

• On January 12, 2020, WHD published the Joint Employer Final Rule7 to revise and update 

its regulations interpreting joint employer status under the FLSA. The final rule provides 

updated guidance for determining joint employer status when an employee performs work for 

his or her employer that simultaneously benefits another individual or entity, including 

guidance on the identification of certain factors that are not relevant when determining joint 

employer status. The effective date of the final rule is March 16, 2020. 

• On May 20, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule8 that allows 

employers to pay bonuses or other incentive-based pay to salaried, nonexempt employees 

whose hours vary from week to week. The final rule clarifies that payments in addition to 

the fixed salary are compatible with the use of the fluctuating workweek method under the 

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

• In FY 2020 WHD was delegated new authority to administer and enforce two new laws: the 

Labor Value Content (LVC) provision of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement 

(USMCA)9 and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).10 The Families First 

Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) is effective through December 31, 2020, and requires 

covered employers to provide employees with paid sick leave or expanded family and 

medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19. The United States-Mexico-Canada 

Agreement Implementation Act (USMCA) requires that, to receive preferential tariff 

treatment, a producer of a covered vehicle must file a certification that the production of the 

covered vehicle meets the high-wage components of the labor value content requirements. 

Implementation and enforcement of both laws were incorporated into the existing Office of 

Policy organizational structure, with FFCRA oversight falling to the Division of FMLA/14(c) 

 4 https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/publications/PAID-programreport.pdf. 5 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/09/27/2019-20353/defining-and-delimiting-the-exemptions-forexecutive-administrative-professional-outside-sales-and. 6 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/12/16/2019-26447/regular-rate-under-the-fair-labor-standardsact. 7 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa/2020-joint-employment. 8 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime/fww. 9 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/usmca. 10 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/ffcra.
TAB 2: State of Play

10

and the USMCA implemented by the Division of IMM/FL. The Office of Policy’s DRLI 

was responsible for development of initiating regulations for each and the FFCRA includes a 

certification component which will be managed by the Office of Performance and 

Communication’s Division of Certificate Processing.

o On June 29, 2020, the Department of Labor announced an interim final rule11

providing regulations necessary to implement and administer the high-wage 

components of the Labor Value Content (LVC) requirements set forth in the 

United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the treaty’s 

implementing statute. The LVC requirements promote more high-wage jobs for 

the U.S. auto industry by requiring that a significant portion of motor vehicles be 

made with high-wage labor. Among other provisions, the rule details what 

information the Department will review for omissions and errors on LVC 

certifications submitted by vehicle producers to U.S Customs and Border 

Protection, defines the scope of the Department’s role in conducting verifications 

to help ensure producer compliance, sets forth recordkeeping requirements, and 

describes the Department’s whistleblower enforcement process. The interim final 

rule was effective July 1, 2020.

Enforcement

In today’s environment of competing priorities and shifting resources, WHD is focusing on the 

fundamentals. Foremost, WHD is an enforcement agency, and collectively, the work we 

undertake helps both employees and employers. Our mission provides employees with a basic 

level of economic security and levels the playing field with employers. Enforcement restores 

wages owed to workers and eliminates unfair competitive advantages of unscrupulous employers 

who are not paying their workers the wages they are due. 

In FY 2019, WHD recovered a record amount of back wages for workers—topping the 2018 

record by recovering more than $322 million in back wages for more than 313,000 workers. 

Using resources judiciously, WHD works with employers to remedy their violations and move 

them into compliance. WHD has always relied upon a combination of rigorous enforcement and 

robust education to improve compliance and has long maintained that enforcement alone will 

never be sufficient to achieve the Division’s mission. 

WHD prioritizes resources using evidence-based, multi-pronged strategies to improve 

compliance that include delivering compliance assistance to employers; conducting 

investigations in high-violation industries; engaging and educating private and public 

stakeholders on compliance issues; and using traditional and social media to inform employers, 

workers, consumers, and the public about WHD and the resources available to them. WHD 

protects fair competition through investigations of employers that have gained an unfair 

advantage through violations of wage and hour laws. WHD also helps employers proactively 

address and prevent violations through new and innovative approaches to compliance assistance. 

WHD rigorously enforces all laws within its jurisdiction governing the administration and 

 11 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/07/01/2020-14014/high-wage-components-of-the-labor-valuecontent-requirements-under-the-united-states-mexico-canada.
TAB 2: State of Play

11

enforcement of non-immigrant visa programs in order to protect American workers and guest 

workers. 

WHD enforcement is focused on the most egregious violators, such as those who engage in 

criminal activity, retaliation, and other forms of exploitation most damaging to the American 

workforce. WHD leverages data to prioritize enforcement around those industries with a history 

and prevalence of violations. WHD invests resources where data analytics and evidence suggest 

they will have the broadest impact—improving compliance beyond just those employers 

investigated. Given the size of the organization relative to the size of the regulated community—

more than 143 million workers and 9.8 million workplaces—WHD must make wise use of every 

resource in order to achieve the greatest effect.

Key Agency Stakeholders

Stakeholders interested in WHD’s actions:

• American Payroll Association (APA)

• American Staffing Association (ASA)

• American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR)

• Associated General Contractors (AGC)

• Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. (ABC)

• Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO (BCTD)

• North America’s Building Trades Union (NABTU)

• National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON)

• HR Policy Association

• American Association of People with Disabilities

• Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ)

• Jobs With Justice

• National Alliance for Fair Contracting

• National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)

• American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA)

• National Employment Law Project (NELP)

• National Restaurant Association

• Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI) 

• Public Welfare Foundation

• American Farm Bureau Federation

• National Farmers Union

• Farmworker Justice
TAB 2: State of Play

12

• United States Breastfeeding Committee

Stakeholders that the Secretary should engage in the first 90 days:

The following organizations are key stakeholders for the agency because they are very active 

around wage and hour issues, including policy, enforcement, and outreach perspectives.

• American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)

• Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

• U.S. Chamber of Commerce

• National Employment Law Project (NELP)
TAB 3: Calendar

13

TAB 3: CALENDAR

WHD enforcement and operations activities follow the fiscal year cycle, October 1 to September 

30.

• Each year, the Executive Leadership Team, which consists of the Administrator’s 

political staff, the Regional and Deputy Regional Administrators, and the Senior 

Executive Service Staff in the National Office, gathers input from each WHD functional 

area to set the priorities for the coming fiscal year, consistent with the Department’s 

strategic plan. This step usually occurs in April through June with the development of a 

draft plan that outlines how the agency plans to achieve the mission in the upcoming 

year. The framework is communicated through the Regional Offices to the District 

Office Managers, typically in early summer. District Offices meet with their staff during 

the summer to develop strategies and local initiatives in support of the plan. In August,

the District Offices communicate their local plans through the Regional Office to the 

National Office for review and modification, as appropriate. The Administrator then 

finalizes the plan after consultation in the DOL and approves local initiatives by the end 

of the fiscal year.

• There are typically Executive Leadership Team meetings in the fall, winter, and spring. 

Training activities, accountability reviews, and prevailing wage surveys occur throughout 

the fiscal year.

Event Date

Anniversary of Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993 February 5, 2021

National Nurses Week May 2021

National Small Business Week May 2021

Anniversary of Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 June 25, 2021

International Youth Day August 12, 2021

Labor Day and Labor Rights Weeks September 2021

National Farm Safety and Health Week September 2021

National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) October 2021

National Work and Family Month October 2021

Military Family Month November 2021
TAB 4: Budget

14

TAB 4: BUDGET

Wage and Hour Division

Budget Authority and FTE

(Dollars in millions)

FY 2017

Enacted

FY 2018

Enacted

FY 2019

Enacted

FY 2020

Enacted

FY 2021

Request

Budget Authority $227.5 $227.5 $229.0 $242.0 $244.3

FTE 1,404 1,355 1,297 1,293 1,387

At-A-Glance

WHD receives funding through an annual appropriation. In addition, WHD receives funding for 

its H-1B L-Fraud account through collected fees. The H-1B account supports additional FTE not 

included in the table above. In FY 2020, WHD apportioned $50.0 million to support 214 FTE 

through its H-1B account. A portion of H-1B funds are allocated to the Office of the Solicitor 

(up to $6 million in FY 2020).

Budget and FTE Trends

In FY 2010, WHD received an increase of approximately $34.0 million over its FY 2009 funding 

level for an appropriated funding level of $227.3 million. With the exception of FY 2013, the 

agency’s enacted funding levels remained flat at $227.5 million through FY 2018. The agency 

received a $1.5 million increase in FY 2019 to raise its funding to $229.0 million, and 

subsequently a $13 million increase in FY 2020 to increase appropriated funding to $242.0 

million. In FY 2013, WHD was subject to the sequester and funded at $215.2 million. The 

agency is requesting $244.3 million in FY 2021, which is an increase of $2.3 million over the FY 

2020 enacted level.

WHD’s overall FTE usage increased in FY 2010 with the increased funding level. FTE usage 

continued to increase through FY 2012, when WHD used 1,810 FTE between its S&E and H-1B 

accounts. FTE usage began to decrease in FY 2013 due to sequestration, and this trend 

continued through FY 2015 due to flat funding levels and higher-than-expected attrition levels. 

FTE usage in FY 2019 was 1,492. WHD planned to begin a large hiring push to increase FTE 

usage in FY 2020; the agency apportioned 1,507 FTE. The FY 2021 request would fund 1,601 

FTE, 94 more than the FY 2020 enacted level.

In FY 2009 and 2010, WHD received approximately $15.0 million in funding for the American 

Recovery and Reinvestment Act transferred from the worker protection pool. In FY 2013, WHD 

received $1.0 million in supplemental funding from the Superstorm Sandy Supplemental to 

cover travel costs to the Northeast region for national office staff to perform outreach activities 

and enforcement. Additionally, in FY 2020, WHD received $2.5 million in supplemental 
TAB 4: Budget

15

funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act for response activities 

related to COVID-19 response.

In FY 2013, WHD reduced contracts usage to achieve savings for sequestration. The agency 

also implemented a temporary hiring freeze, eliminated performance bonuses, reduced overtime 

and premium pay, and reduced Permanent Change of Station (PCS) moves to reach the necessary 

funding level under sequestration. 

In recent fiscal years, WHD has requested additional funding to fund the IT 

modernization/legacy system replacement. In addition, the agency has requested additional 

resources for investigator FTE in recent budget submissions to support its strategic enforcement 

approach. Congress provided unspecified increases in FY 2019 and FY 2020 of $1.5 million and 

$13 million, respectively. WHD has used this funding to ramp up hiring and IT modernization 

efforts. 
TAB 4: Budget

16
TAB 4: Budget

17
TAB 5: Agency Performance

18

TAB 5: AGENCY PERFORMANCE

WHD has a long history of engaging in strategic planning in order to efficiently and effectively 

manage enforcement and operations. With more than 10.2 million establishments and 148 

million workers covered by the laws WHD administers, WHD must plan how to deploy its 

resources to have the greatest impact for workers and employers. WHD leverages data to 

prioritize enforcement around those industries where violations are most prevalent and where 

WHD believes the agency can and should effect change—improving compliance beyond just 

those employers investigated. Each fiscal year, WHD engages in a planning process to determine 

where to focus resources and to review performance measures. The agency plan is developed in 

consultation with all parts of the agency as well as the Department’s Performance Management 

Center (PMC), which manages the Department’s strategic planning process. 

The Department of Labor establishes a five-year strategic plan consistent with the Government 

Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and the GPRA Modernization Act. The WHD Division of 

Strategic Planning and Performance (DSPP) works with PMC to develop the Department’s 

strategic plan, WHD-level plans, and to refine and monitor performance measures to assess 

agency results.

WHD’s annual planning cycle follows the fiscal year, from October 1 to September 30. Each 

year, the Executive Leadership Team, which consists of the non-career leadership encompassing 

the Regional and Deputy Regional Administrators and Associate Administrators in the National 

Office, gather input from each WHD functional area to set the priorities for the coming fiscal 

year, consistent with the Department’s strategic plan. This step usually occurs in April through 

June with the development of a draft operating plan that outlines how the agency plans to 

achieve the mission in the upcoming year. The framework is communicated through the 

Regional Offices to the District Office Managers over the summer. Concurrently, the agency 

develops cross-regional and regional initiatives to focus enforcement and compliance assistance 

efforts on those industries where the evidence of violations is strongest and where WHD has 

identified an opportunity to impact compliance. Cross-regional initiatives demonstrate national 

strategies, whereas regional initiatives address priorities identified at the regional level. Regional 

initiatives are communicated to the National Office for review and modification, as appropriate. 

In consultation with Regional Offices, District Offices meet during the summer with their staff to 

develop plans to support of the cross-regional and regional initiatives. These plans are finalized 

by the end of the fiscal year. Mid-year reports are prepared in May to provide status updates on 

cross-regional and regional initiatives, followed by end-of-initiative reports about one month 

after the fiscal year concludes, if the initiative is ending. The information contained in these 

reports is used to share learning across the agency and to guide decision-making regarding the 

future direction of planned initiatives. 

The agency has sought to establish a balanced set of performance measures aimed at improving 

agency efficiency and effectiveness across the broad array of statutory and program areas. These 

performance measures are established annually in consultation with the Executive Leadership 

Team and the DOL PMC. While some measures are used for internal management purposes 

(e.g., setting targets and monitoring performance at the regional level), other measures are 

included in the Department’s budget documents and included in the Annual Performance Report 
TAB 5: Agency Performance

19

(APR) to Congress (e.g., number of compliance actions concluded per year). The measures are 

monitored on a regular basis by the DSPP through the use of the agency’s business intelligence 

reporting tools. The performance results are reported to the Department on a quarterly basis, and 

reviewed regularly by the WHD Executive Leadership Team. The complete set of annual 

performance measures is included in the FY 2020 Operating Plan. The performance measures 

included in the Department’s most recent Annual Performance Report are displayed below.

12

Source: Wage and Hour Investigative Support and Reporting Database (WHISARD).)

 12 Data excludes conciliations.

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Number of compliance actions concluded 28,589 28,771 28,397 26,876 26,096

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

Number of Compliance Actions Concluded