The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is the federal organization charged with promoting the best interests of job searchers, wage earners, and retirees. The DOL does this by: enhancing their working conditions, improving their opportunities for gainful employment, shielding their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers who find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in prices, employment, and another national economic measurement. 

To succeed in this mission the DOL administers federal labor laws that deal with employment involving hourly wage and overtime pay, employment discrimination, worker's right to safe working conditions, and unemployment insurance.