Budget of U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau, FY 1989-2025
Graph of the Week
This week’s graph shows the annual budget of the United States (U.S.) Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau for financial years (FY) 1989-2025. The pink bars display the budget for each FY. The pink bars are associated with the left y-axis and are measured in millions of dollars. The orange bar on the far right of the graph represents the total budget from FY 1989- 2025. The orange bar is associated with the right y-axis and is also measured in millions of dollars.
Key Points
Annual budgets for the Women’s Bureau have typically ranged between $6-12 million.
Funding for the Women’s Bureau was noticeably increased to $18-26 million between FY 2022-2025.
Since FY 1989, the total budget of the Women’s Bureau has been approximately $415 million.
Bonus Commentary
The mission of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau is to champion “policies and standards that safeguard the interests of working women, advocates for the equality and economic security of women and their families, and promotes quality work environments.” The Women’s Bureau was founded in 1920 and its operation continues today. To my knowledge, no one has previously attempted to identify and reveal the budget of the Women’s Bureau over its history.
The data in the graph illustrate that the Women’s Bureau has had an budget of about $6-12 million throughout most of the past 35 years. The Bureau’s budget was increased in FY 2022-2025 (i.e., the Biden administration) to $18-26 million. The total budget of the Bureau since FY 1989 has been approximately $415 million. Part of this money has been directed toward grants and initiatives that support the Bureau’s mission. One example program is the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) .
Perhaps a case existed for the creation of a Women’s Bureau in the early and mid 1900s, but why this office exists today at taxpayer expense is unclear. Moreover, a Men’s Bureau has never been created within the U.S. Department of Labor to offer men the same opportunities that the Women’s Bureau has offered women.
Sources
I extracted data from annual federal budgets published by the U.S. government here. I obtained “actual” spending data from the federal budgets published two years after the year of interest. For example, the “actual” 2012 budget for the Women’s Bureau is published in the 2014 federal budget.
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Thanks for this Jim. These are all starting to add up. I wonder about estimating the dollars spent for women in the US budget. Yuge.
Re the women's budget. How is their budget consistent with the DEI political advocates ?
Many thanks for your research James. Much appreciated.