The Bureau of International Labor Affairs leads the U.S. Department of Labor's efforts to ensure that workers around the world are treated fairly and are able to share in the benefits of the global economy. ILAB's mission is to improve global working conditions, raise living standards, protect workers' ability to exercise their rights, and address the workplace exploitation of children and other vulnerable populations. Our efforts help to ensure a fair playing field for American workers and contribute to stronger export markets for goods made in the United States.

Our work is carried out by three functional offices:

• Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT)
• Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA)
• Office of International Relations (OIR)

What we do

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking

• We are the world’s leading funder of innovative technical assistance programs to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. Our programs provide increased access to education, improve enforcement of child labor laws, and support sustainable livelihoods for parents.
• We develop and implement U.S. government policies and engage strategically with governments, business, labor, and civil society to reduce child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking.
• We conduct research under Congressional mandates and Presidential directives that provides reliable and timely information to policymakers; consumers; and business, labor, and advocacy groups.

Office of Trade and Labor Affairs

• We help shape and implement policies on international trade and investment that represent the interests and welfare of U.S. workers.
• We help enforce labor provisions of U.S. trade agreements and trade preference programs and prevent the exploitation of workers as an unfair means of attracting trade and investment.
• We provide services, information, expertise, and technical cooperation programs that effectively support U.S. foreign labor policy objectives, especially in the context of trade.

Office of International Relations

• We lead U.S. engagement with the International Labor Organization and represent the U.S. government on employment and labor-related issues in other multilateral fora, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Organization of American States, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the G20 Labor and Employment Ministerial process.
• We conduct bilateral dialogues on critical labor and employment issues with a number of strategic countries.
• We develop, coordinate, and advance Department of Labor positions on key global social and economic issues such as worker rights, social protection, sustainable development, youth employment, and job creation.