President Joe Biden announced March 1 that he’s nominating Julie Su to be his new labor secretary.
Su, 53, has been serving as deputy labor secretary under Walsh. As California labor commissioner from 2011 through 2018, she led a significant crackdown on restaurants, car washes, and garment factories that cheated workers out of wages, and went after trucking companies that misclassified drivers as independent contractors.
Labor secretary is a cabinet post, in charge of the U.S. Department of Labor, which enforces minimum wage and overtime, occupational safety and health, workers’ compensation, Davis-Bacon prevailing wage, and many other federal workers rights laws.
“Julie knows in her bones,” Biden said, introducing Su, “that the people who get up every morning and go to work and bust their necks just to make an honest living deserve someone to fight on their side to give them an even shot.”
