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.UNIVERSITY OF 
 'UJNOIS/ibrw 
 AT UHSAnXcha^- 
 
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><2C. 
 94 
 
 Programs of the 
 tmpioyment Standards 
 Administration 
 
 U.S. Department of Labor 
 Employment Standards Administration 
 
 Pam ESA-1 (Rev. 
 June 1987 
 
 
■<H 
 
 MAJOR PROGRAMS OF 
 THE EMPLOYMENT 
 STANDARDS 
 ADMINISTRATION, 
 U.S. DEPARTMENT 
 OF LABOR 
 
 The Employment Standards 
 Administration (ESA) has the 
 authority to correct a wide range of 
 unfair employment practices. 
 
 Laws and regulations setting 
 employment standards, providing 
 workers' compensation to those 
 injured on their jobs, and requiring 
 Federal contractors and subcontractors 
 to provide equal employment 
 opportunity are among those 
 administered and enforced by ESA. 
 
 ESA is an organization of about 
 4,000 employees, who are located in 
 offices throughout the country to 
 make the ESA programs as 
 accessible as possible to the public. 
 The Assistant Secretary of Labor for 
 Employment Standards is 
 responsible for ESA's activities and 
 serves as its administrator. 
 
 Although ESA was formed in 1971, 
 its three component offices— the 
 Office of Federal Contract 
 Compliance Programs, the Office of 
 Workers' Compensation Programs, 
 and the Wage and Hour Division- 
 have long-established identities of 
 their own. 
 
OFFICE OF FEDERAL 
 CONTRACT COMPLIANCE 
 PROGRAMS 
 
 The forerunner of the Office of 
 Federal Contract Compliance 
 Programs (OFCCP) was established 
 in 1965 to administer Executive 
 Order 11246. The Order calls for 
 government-wide efforts to assure 
 that Federal contractors and 
 subcontractors or contractors with 
 Federally assisted construction 
 contracts do not discriminate against 
 any employee or applicant for 
 employment because of race, color, 
 religion, or national origin, and that 
 such contractors take affirmative 
 action to hire and promote in a 
 nondiscriminatory manner. In 1967 
 the Executive Order was amended to 
 also prohibit discrimination based on 
 sex. OFCCP in its present form is 
 the result of a consolidation of the 
 contract compliance responsibilities 
 of various Federal agencies; this 
 reorganization took place in 1978. 
 
 Two laws enacted by Congress to 
 promote the employment of 
 handicapped workers and veterans 
 fall under OFCCP's jurisdiction. 
 These are Section 503 of the 1973 
 Rehabilitation Act and the affirmative 
 action provision of the Vietnam-Era 
 Veterans' Readjustment Assistance 
 Act of 1974. These laws provide that 
 
 Federal contractors and 
 subcontractors must take affirmative 
 action to hire and promote qualified 
 handicapped people, Vietnam-era 
 veterans, and disabled veterans of all 
 wars. 
 
 Equal employment opportunity 
 specialists conduct compliance 
 reviews and investigate complaints to 
 determine whether Federal 
 contractors and subcontractors are 
 meeting their obligations to provide 
 equal employment opportunities for 
 women, minorities, handicapped 
 individuals, Vietnam-era and disabled 
 veterans. 
 
 All three programs are designed to 
 identify employment discrimination 
 
and provide remedies for victims of 
 discrimination. 
 
 Contractors and subcontractors 
 who fail to take appropriate 
 affirmative action or fail to remedy 
 employment discrimination may face 
 legal proceedings which could result 
 in their debarment from government 
 contract work or cancellation of their 
 contracts. 
 
 
OFFICE OF WORKERS' 
 
 COMPENSATION 
 
 PROGRAMS 
 
 The Office of Workers' 
 Compensation Programs (OWCP) 
 began in 1916, when an organization 
 was established to administer claims 
 under the Federal Employees' 
 Compensation Act. The office has 
 existed since that time under various 
 names. 
 
 Under this Act, benefits are now 
 available to about three million 
 Federal white-collar and blue-collar 
 employees, as well as to several 
 other groups of workers brought 
 under this Act through amendments, 
 such as members of the Peace 
 Corps and VISTA volunteers. 
 
 OWCP also administers the 
 Longshore and Harbor Workers' 
 Compensation Act of 1927. This Act 
 covers all maritime workers for job- 
 related injury, illness, or death on the 
 navigable waters of the U.S. as well 
 as employees working on adjoining 
 piers, docks, and terminals, plus a 
 number of other groups of workers 
 included through extension of the 
 Act. Compensation, under this law, is 
 
 paid by insurance carriers or by 
 employers who are self-insured. 
 
 Payment of black lung benefits 
 under the Black Lung Benefits 
 Reform Act of 1977, as amended, is 
 the third major program administered 
 by OWCP. It provides monthly 
 payments and medical treatment to 
 coal miners totally disabled from 
 pneumoconiosis (black lung) arising 
 from their employment in the nation's 
 coal mines, or monthly payments to 
 their surviving dependents. 
 
WAGE AND HOUR 
 DIVISION 
 
 The Wage and Hour Division was 
 established in 1938 to administer the 
 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) 
 which includes minimum wage, 
 overtime pay, and child labor 
 provisions. 
 
 When the new law went into effect 
 on October 24, 1938, only about 12 
 million workers were covered. From 
 this limited beginning, the Act's 
 coverage of workers gradually has 
 expanded. Over the half-century, six 
 major amendments have been 
 enacted to increase the minimum 
 wage. Three amendments— those in 
 1961, 1966 and 1974— also extended 
 the Act's coverage to more workers, 
 including some categories of 
 employees of State and local 
 governments. In 1985, as a result of 
 the Supreme Court's Garcia decision, 
 FLSA became applicable to 7.7 
 million additional State and local 
 government employees. 
 
 Today over 73 million full-time and 
 part-time workers in the private 
 sector and in Federal, State and 
 local governments are protected by 
 the FLSA. 
 
 The Wage and Hour Division's 
 responsibility also has grown to 
 include other laws and regulations 
 which protect workers' wages and 
 working conditions. 
 
 Wage and Hour Division 
 compliance officers across the 
 country conduct investigations of 
 employers covered by the various 
 laws which the division administers, 
 to determine whether workers are 
 
 being paid in compliance with the 
 laws. The division annually recovers 
 tens of millions of dollars in back pay 
 for workers who have been illegally 
 underpaid. 
 
 The Wage and Hour Division is 
 also responsible for laws setting 
 wage and hour standards for Federal 
 contractors. The Davis-Bacon Act 
 and Related Acts require that 
 covered construction workers receive 
 at least the prevailing wages and 
 fringe benefits paid on similar 
 projects in the area. The Service 
 Contract Act requires that prevailing 
 wages and fringe benefits be paid to 
 most employees working on Federal 
 contracts principally for services, 
 such as laundry and dry cleaning, 
 maintenance and guard service. 
 
 The Wage and Hour Division is 
 also responsible for investigating 
 complaints filed by employees who 
 allege that their employers 
 discriminated against them for 
 actions they took to further the 
 purposes of various environmental 
 protection laws. 
 
 Improving conditions for migrant 
 farm workers is also an area of 
 responsibility of the Wage and Hour 
 Division. The Migrant and Seasonal 
 Agricultural Worker Protection Act 
 protects migrant and seasonal 
 agricultural workers in their dealings 
 with farm labor contractors, 
 agricultural employers, agricultural 
 associations, and providers of 
 migrant housing. All persons and 
 organizations subject to the Act must 
 
observe certain rules when 
 recruiting, soliciting, hiring, 
 employing, transporting, or housing 
 these workers or when furnishing 
 them to other employers. 
 
 The Wage and Hour Division also 
 investigates for compliance with 
 recordkeeping requirements under 
 
 the employer sanctions provisions of 
 the Immigration Reform and Control 
 Act. Employers subject to the Act 
 have certain recordkeeping and 
 reporting responsibilities 
 documenting the legal employability 
 of their workers. 
 
PUBLIC INFORMATION 
 AND CONSUMER 
 AFFAIRS 
 
 The ESA Office of Information and 
 Consumer Affairs is responsible for 
 informing the public about the 
 programs administered by ESA. 
 
 Program activities are publicized 
 through various methods including 
 press releases, feature stories, 
 consumer fact sheets, and 
 pamphlets. 
 
 If you would like additional 
 information on any of the ESA 
 programs, contact the Director, ESA 
 Office of Information and Consumer 
 Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor, 
 Room C4331, 200 Constitution Ave., 
 N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210. 
 
FIELD OFFICES 
 
 To meet the needs of the public 
 across the country, ESA has offices 
 in more than 350 cities. These 
 offices aid in the administration and 
 enforcement of programs and 
 provide direct access for those who 
 have questions or complaints. Check 
 your phone directory for a listing in 
 your area. The addresses of our 10 
 regional offices, and the States they 
 serve, are: 
 
 REGION I 
 
 (Conn., Me., Mass., 
 
 N.H., R.I., Vt.) 
 
 JFK Federal Building 
 
 Room 1612-C 
 
 Boston, Mass. 02203 
 
 REGION II 
 
 (N.J., N.Y., Puerto 
 
 Rico, Virgin Islands) 
 
 201 Varick Street 
 
 Room 750 
 
 New York, N.Y. 10014 
 
 REGION III 
 
 (Del., D.C., Md., 
 
 Pa., Va., W. Va.) 
 
 3535 Market Street 
 
 Gateway Building, Room 15230 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 19104 
 
 REGION IV 
 
 (Ala., Fla., Ga., Ky., 
 
 Miss., N.C., S.C., Tenn.) 
 
 1317 Peachtree St., N.E. 
 
 Room 105 
 
 Atlanta, Ga. 30367 
 
 REGION V 
 
 (III., Ind., Mich., 
 
 Minn., Ohio, Wise.) 
 
 230 South Dearborn Street 
 
 8th Floor 
 
 Chicago, III. 60604 
 
 REGION VI 
 
 (Ark., La., N.M., 
 
 Okla., Tex.) 
 
 Federal Office Building 
 
 525 Griffin Street 
 
 Room 800 
 
 Dallas, Texas 75202 
 
 REGION VII 
 
 (Iowa, Kan., Mo., 
 
 Neb.) 
 
 Federal Office Building 
 
 911 Walnut St., Room 2000 
 
 Kansas City, Mo. 64106 
 
 REGION VIII 
 
 (Colo., Mont., N.D., 
 
 S.D., Utah, Wyo.) 
 
 Federal Office Building 
 
 1961 Stout St., Room 1490 
 
 Denver, Colo. 80294 
 
 REGION IX 
 
 (Ariz., Calif., Hawaii, 
 
 Nev., Guam and various 
 
 Pacific Islands) 
 
 Federal Office Building 
 
 71 Stevenson Place 
 
 Room 930 
 
 San Francisco, Calif. 
 
 94105 
 
 REGION X 
 
 (Alaska, Idaho, Ore., 
 
 Wash.) 
 
 Federal Office Building 
 
 Room 4141 
 
 909 First Avenue 
 
 Seattle, Wash. 98174 
 
U. S. Department of Labor 
 Employment Standards Administration 
 Washington, D.C. 20210 
 
 Official Business 
 
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