Labor Standards & Procurement Policy in the Obama Era – Berkeley, CA

The Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law and the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security present Paving the High Road: Labor Standards and Procurement Policy in the Obama Era April 23, 2010. 

Since the year 2000, federal government contracting for goods and services has more than doubled, to over $526 billion dollars per year.  These expenditures create millions of jobs—jobs that are funded with federal tax dollars, but under the control of private employers.  However, unlike federal jobs, economic data show that many of these procurement-based jobs pay low wages and offer few or no benefits.  Such increases in federally funded private employment raise important questions: How well do existing laws and policies ensure that taxpayer dollars spent on federal contractors create good jobs and raise standards in the broader labor market? How might policymakers develop new laws and policies to encourage the development of good jobs in the federal contractor workforce?  What are the legal implications of these tools?  Our upcoming symposium brings together top national experts in this area to discuss these and other related questions. kja