President Obama has chosen Lorelei Boylan as his nominee for Administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) is a sub-agency within the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment Standards Administration (ESA) responsible for enforcing federal labor laws concerning, among other topics, minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, youth employment and special employment, family and medical leave, migrant workers, lie detector tests, worker protections in certain temporary worker programs, and the prevailing wages for government service and construction contracts.

Boylan currently serves as the Director of Strategic Enforcement at the New York State Department of Labor, Labor Standards Division. According to a White House press release, Boylan supervises the Apparel Industry/Fair Wages Task Force, a state-wide specialized unit charged with investigating low-wage industries for wage and hour violations. Prior to heading the Task Force, Boylan spearheaded the Bureau of Immigrant Workers’ Rights, a newly formed division of New York’s DOL, where she developed policies to assist those with limited English proficiency. Prior to working for New York’s DOL, Boylan practiced law as an Assistant Attorney General in the New York State Attorney General’s Office. She was hired under the Honor’s Program to represent the State in defensive and affirmative litigation. In this capacity, Boylan investigated businesses for violations of state and federal labor laws and represented the Department of Health in New York State Supreme Court and the New York Court of Appeals. Before becoming a lawyer, Boylan worked for several years for a global monitoring company, counseling firms on compliance with state and federal labor laws, OSHA, immigration and tax laws.