U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez to be his next Secretary of Labor.
The Cabinet appointment is being made as the Obama administration undertakes several worker-oriented initiatives, including an overhaul of immigration laws and an increase in the minimum wage.
Perez has been head of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for the past three years, and is a former secretary of the state of Maryland's Department of Labor.
Perez is the son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic and if the Senate confirms his nomination he would replace Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman and the first Hispanic U.S. labor secretary.
The Cabinet appointment is being made as the Obama administration undertakes several worker-oriented initiatives, including an overhaul of immigration laws and an increase in the minimum wage.
Perez has been head of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for the past three years, and is a former secretary of the state of Maryland's Department of Labor.
Perez is the son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic and if the Senate confirms his nomination he would replace Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman and the first Hispanic U.S. labor secretary.