Bureau of Labor and Industries asks Legislature for sustained funding to tackle growing wage and civil‑rights backlogs

Co Chair Gomberg opened a Feb. informational hearing of the Transportation and Economic Development Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee on House Bill 5015, the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) budget bill.

Christina Stevenson, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, told the committee BOLI is managing large, sustained increases in workload and asked for a multi‑part investment to bring the agency’s enforcement capacity up to the level of new laws and demand. "Each of those [backlog] numbers represents an Oregonian who did not get paid what they're owed," Stevenson said.

The request outlined by Stevenson and agency staff included a phased hiring plan for new investigators and intake staff, an upgrade to the bureau’s case‑management system and reclassifications to raise investigator pay. The bureau’s package asks for roughly $19.9 million in other funds for the 2025–27 biennium, a phased plan to hire about 70 staff over 18 months, and a $2.1 million request for phase two of a case‑management replacement, Stevenson said.

Tamara Brickman, the chief financial office analyst assigned to BOLI, described revenue and funding sources in the governor’s recommended budget and noted both one‑time and ongoing sources. Brickman said the governor’s recommendation is about $17.8 million above current service level when pass‑through grant dollars are excluded, and that the proposal relies on a mix of general, other, federal and lottery funds. She also explained a $15 million one‑time transfer from the Department of Consumer and Business Services’ Worker Benefit Fund that the governor’s package would use for childcare and workforce efforts tied to semiconductor programs.

The hearing focused on two enforcement backlogs the bureau identified. Stevenson described a backlog of more than 4,800 wage claims in the Wage and Hour Division and more than 4,300 intake matters in the Civil Rights Division. "We have had to dismiss hundreds of cases," she said, adding that most wage claims that reach investigators are substantiated. Laura Vanningcourt, wage and hour division administrator, told the committee the number of wage‑related inquiries rose 208% since 2020, and that the division has handled tens of thousands of inquiries this year.

Agency staff also described a temporary triage policy used while capacity is constrained. Under that triage, BOLI has set a salary threshold equal to 350% of the federal poverty guideline (which the bureau staff said corresponds to about $52,710 a year or about $25.34 an hour) and gives lower priority to claims from workers who earn above that threshold. Vanningcourt said the bureau expected that triage to affect about 17% of incoming claims but has observed it affect about 12% so far. Stevenson said the decision to triage claims was "the worst thing we have had to do," but framed it as a difficult choice because of current staffing limits.

Staff described consequences of not increasing capacity: one option would be to sustain the dismissals/triage approach and reduce the running caseload but leave many workers without agency investigation; the other would be to allow the backlog to grow, increasing average investigation waits to roughly 480 days in some projections. Stevenson and Vanningcourt said the bureau’s preferred path is funding sufficient to eliminate the backlog and reduce wait times to about 72 days by 2028, accomplished through staged hiring, faster intake and a modern case‑management system that the bureau estimates can cut time spent on manual tasks by 20–30%.

Dylan Morgan, manager of Employer Assistance at BOLI, described employer outreach work the bureau does to prevent violations through training and direct consultation. Morgan said employer assistance handled roughly 37,000 employer contacts in the current biennium and provided about 370 seminars, and that the program would add three positions (two trainers and one communications position) under the agency request to increase proactive outreach and reduce the need for enforcement work.

Committee members pressed the bureau on the equity and behavioral effects of triage. Representative Wynne said limiting investigations for higher‑earning workers risks signaling that violations are tolerable. "If laws aren't being enforced, they don't matter," Wynne said. Stevenson and other staff acknowledged the reputational and compliance concerns and urged a legislative remedy to provide sustainable funding.

On funding mechanisms, Stevenson and committee members discussed Senate Bill 946 (as referenced in the hearing), a proposal to clarify or expand permissible uses of the Worker Benefit Fund to support BOLI’s ongoing operations. Stevenson said workers and employers currently contribute to the Worker Benefit Fund (described in the hearing as a one‑cent‑per‑hour assessment) and that a stable revenue source like that would be a logical match for BOLI’s duties. Brickman described the $15 million transfer from a DCBS fund as one‑time money the governor’s budget uses to shore up the bureau in the short term.

No formal committee action or vote occurred during the informational hearing. Co‑chairs Gomberg and Woods closed the session after directing the bureau to post updated slides and noting a public hearing and continued discussion scheduled for the next day.

Ending: The committee recessed the informational hearing and will reconvene for the agency’s public hearing and continued review of HB 5015 on the next scheduled meeting day, when members said they will review updated materials the bureau has posted to OLIS.