Marty Walsh, the two-term mayor of Boston, was confirmed as the Labor secretary by the Senate in a 68-29 vote March 22, becoming the first union leader to run the department in more than 40 years. four decades.
Walsh’s elevation to Labor Secretary comes as the pandemic has left millions unemployed and workplace safety issues have come to the fore. This aside from the Trump administration’s hollowing out the department with regressive anti-labor policies.
The former union leader will also serve in a Biden administration that has pledged to protect the power of unions and is looking to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The increased minimum wage was stripped from the latest coronavirus relief package, but the Biden administration says it’s committed to finding another avenue to pass it. Walsh may very well be tasked to sell the minimum wage increased.
Meanwhile, issues of equality and discrimination are also likely to be front and center given the Biden administration’s focus on racial justice.
“Now is an opportunity to look at how work in the future is going to look like, while also addressing issues of inequality,” says Hilda Solis, who served as Labor secretary during the early days of the Great Recession and is now an Los Angeles County supervisor.
The labor department is also now tasked with figuring out what to do with several controversial labor rules written in the twilight of the Trump administration.
One broadened who could be counted as an independent contractor, making it harder for workers in the gig economy to be paid a federal minimum wage or gain access to company-mandated health care. Earlier this month, the Labor Department said it’s taking steps to reverse that rule.
Another Trump-era rule would have allowed restaurants to treat some workers like cooks and dishwashers as tipped workers, meaning they could be subject to the sub-minimum federal wage for people who make tips. A decision on whether to implement that rule has been delayed until next month.
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