Cheryl Stanton Is In the Saddle As the Wage and Hour Administrator

"80 percent of success is just showing up"

—Woody Allen

On April 10, 2019, the Senate approved Cheryl M. Stanton to be the Wage and Hour Administrator. I am told Ms. Stanton showed up for work this week. She is now in charge of the Wage and Hour Division of the US Department of Labor.

The Administrator position is a very important position, yet it is perhaps lowest level political appointee which requires the advice and consent of the US Senate. Like many Trump Administration nominees, Ms. Stanton’s nomination was stuck in the Senate for some time, and she had to be re-nominated for the position. Only with a rule change about nominees, did her appointment get approved, and then by a 53 to 47 party line vote.

According to Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge, Ms. Stanton hails from South Carolina, where she worked for then governor Nikki Haley as executive director of the state Department of Employment and Workforce. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheryl_Stanton. Prior to that she went to University of Chicago Law School, worked for Ogletree, Deakins (a well-respected management law firm) and a predecessor firm, and served the George W. Bush Administration in its transition as a labor specialist. She also clerked for Judge Samuel Alito when he was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She is well-qualified for her job.

As the new Wage and Hour Administrator, Ms. Stanton now occupies an office that has had a series of acting chiefs for more than two years. There is likely plenty of work piled up on the table for her. The position occupies a particularly out of size role for government contractors, as she is now responsible for the enforcement and interpretation of the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act. And her most public visibility will be the enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the various regulatory initiatives swirling around that law.

We in the wage and hour community welcome her aboard!