U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Remarks Prepared for Delivery by
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
National Grocers Association
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Thank you, Chris [Smith, Associate Director, White House Office of Public Liaison]. It's a pleasure to be here.

Thank you for taking the time to visit your nation's capitol. I know how busy all of you are with your businesses and families. But, it's important that you invest some time to see what your government is doing.

Today, let me share with you some thoughts on the growing economy and what this President and this Administration are doing to create the climate for increased growth, jobs and opportunity.

A little less than two weeks ago, the Labor Department released the national unemployment numbers for May. Our economy has come a long way. As you may recall, the stock market peaked in March 2000. In August 2000, manufacturing entered the doldrums. By the time President Bush took office, the nation was starting to show signs of a recession, though it was not widely reported at the time.

The economy was responding to the President's first round of tax cuts when the attacks of September 11, 2001, occurred. One million jobs were lost in the first 3 months after the attacks. The President's tax cuts and jobs-and-growth package jump-started the economy. These initiatives are widely credited with making the recession one of the shortest and shallowest in recent history.

First quarter GDP growth for 2004 grew at 3.9 percent. Real after-tax incomes are up 10 percent since the fourth quarter of 2000, substantially above the levels of the last recession. Inflation and interest rates are near 40-year lows, pushing homeownership to all-time highs. Productivity growth rates have soared.

The forward momentum of the American economy is also reflected in the strengthening labor market. Our country has experienced nine straight months of job growth, with 1.4 million new jobs created since last August. Nationally, the unemployment rate is at 5.6 percent, which is lower than the national average unemployment rate in the decades of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

The Labor Department is doing its part to create an economic climate in which job creation can flourish and working families can move forward.

Through regulatory reform, the Department is ensuring that its regulations are relevant to the 21 st century workforce and that unnecessary obstacles to job creation are removed. Under this Administration, the Department has reduced its regulatory agenda from 130 items to 80. Many of these had been on the Department's agenda for years and even decades. By paring down burdensome items and concentrating on regulations that can really improve safety at the workplace, the Department has been able to focus on significant regulatory reforms.

One of the Department's most important regulatory reforms in recent years was the update of the white-collar overtime regulations. Your association deserves great accolades for supporting these long-overdue reforms.

They update and clarify overtime regulations that were first created in 1938. They were so outdated that they created a legal nightmare. In fact, overtime complaints now generate more federal class action lawsuits in the workplace than discrimination complaints.

Under the new rule, everyone who is paid by the hour is entitled to overtime. In addition:

• All blue collar workers are entitled to overtime;

• All salaried workers who earn below $23,660 are entitled to overtime - currently, only salaried workers who earn less than $8,060 per year are guaranteed overtime protection;

• If you are a salaried worker who earns more than $23,660, your employer must pay you overtime unless you perform executive, administrative or professional job duties.

• The final regulations update and clarify the definitions of executive, administrative or professional job duties - which have not been changed since 1949, when Elvis was a teenager.

• The final regulations also protect the overtime pay for police officers, fire fighters, paramedics, licensed practical nurses, cooks, technicians and veterans.

Your Association has also helped to bring a common sense approach to another Department initiative as well: ergonomics. In January 2001, the previous Administration had finalized a massive new regulation on ergonomics that would have cost billions of dollars and threatened jobs.

NGA helped lead the fight against those regulations, and a bipartisan majority in Congress struck those rules down.

There was tremendous pressure on this Administration to essentially re-issue the same one-size-fits-all ergonomics regulations that Congress had already rejected. In fact, one group urged the Department to go even further than the previous Administration had gone and impose huge costs on workplaces.

The Department has adopted an approach of working with employers, not against them, to better protect workers from verified ergonomics hazards. And one of first sets of ergonomics prevention guidelines the Department has issued were developed in partnership with the NGA.

These guidelines aren't mandatory. Rather, they are recommended prescriptions for employers who want to adopt best practices and techniques to avoid common ergonomics hazards in their workplaces.

This approach reflects the Department's overall philosophy—that most employers want to do the right thing to protect their workers. The Department needs to target its resources to go after the handful of "bad actors"—and help the majority of "good actors" understand and comply with the Department's standards.

You can access the new guidelines via OSHA's Web site at www.osha.gov, and OSHA will also make printed copies available to NGA.

Another issue of great concern to both employers and workers is health care. All across the country, employers tell us that affordable health care is one of their highest priorities and greatest concerns. That's why this Administration is backing association health plans as a way to close the coverage gap. The goal is to make health care more affordable, especially for small businesses and their employees. And the Bush Administration also supports medical savings accounts, which give your workers and their families greater flexibility and control over their health-care dollars.

Finally, the National Grocers Association has been a valuable partner with the Labor Department on the YouthRules! initiative that was launched two years ago.

Through YouthRules!, the Labor Department-- and strategic partners like the NGA-- promote positive, safe working experiences for teenaged workers. The initiative educates employers, teenagers, parents, teachers and the general public about child labor laws. There is a YouthRules! Web site, pocket guides and posters that provide information for employers and others. The Department has also sponsored youth rallies, training seminars and other activities to boost understanding of the rules. And we have an industry-specific fact sheet just for grocery stores, as well as an electronic self-assessment tool to help you measure your compliance with these rules. You can access these materials via the YouthRules! Web site at: www.youthrules.dol.gov.

Every year, millions of teenagers work in part-time and summer jobs. For many of these young people, the local grocery store provides their first jobs. The opportunity to perform meaningful work—like providing fresh food for neighboring families—helps them appreciate the value of work and our free enterprise system. But in order to reap the benefits of this early working experience, these young people need a safe and healthy environment.

That's why the National Grocers Association is such an important partner in the YouthRules! initiative.

The Department appreciates your commitment to providing a safe and meaningful environment for America's youngest workers.

Through regulatory reform, compliance assistance and common-sense initiatives like these, this Administration is creating the climate for sustained growth and opportunity. We look forward to continuing to work with you to strengthen the recovery and to provide opportunity for America's working families. Thank you.

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