Speeches by Secretary Elaine L. Chao

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Remarks by Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
Women’s Small Business Summit 2002
St. Louis, Missouri
September 9, 2002

Thank you so much, Senator Bond, for that kind introduction. And thank you for organizing this Summit for the women business owners of your state!

There is no stronger advocate for small-business owners in Washington than Kit Bond! Senator Bond invited all of you here today because he cares deeply about small business and women business owners, in particular. He understands the many contributions you make to Missouri’s communities and to our nation’s economy. He also appreciates the special challenges that you face, and that government can really impact your business and your livelihood—positively or negatively.

As I look out at this audience—one word comes to my mind: Empowerment!

Your influence can be seen in the power of your numbers: 6.2 million privately-held, women-owned businesses providing employment for 9.2 million Americans. You continue to grow at twice the rate of all businesses. In addition, about one out of five women-owned firms are nowrun by women of color.

Right here in Missouri, women-owned firms comprise over one quarter of the state’s companies—generating over $15 billion revenue and employing over 130,000 people.

As President Bush said at the Department of Labor’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit in March, “when it comes to entrepreneurship and job creation, ours is an increasingly woman’s world.”

No one understands better the workforce challenges we face in this new millennium than you do. You know how difficult it is to balance work and family. You understand the challenges of taking risks, securing seed capital, finding a market niche, building a business, finding the right people with the right skills to help you build that enterprise so you can provide jobs, opportunity and help to build a stronger community.

Statistics show that women entrepreneurs are making an impact on our country! You are helping fuel the economy by creating jobs and providing new goods and services. You are taking the lead in balancing the requirements of work and family by allowing flextime and telecommuting. And you are preparing the next generation of women entrepreneurs by mentoring others and showing them how to break through the glass ceiling.

I am proud of what you are doing to help our economy. The President and I want to help you realize your dreams and make sure that Washington doesn’t mess with your success.

We understand that like all business owners, you are concerned about taxes, regulations, access to capital, and finding qualified employees.

But we also know that you started your businesses for different reasons than your male counterparts and that means your priorities can be a little different, too.

For many of you (almost one third), starting your own firm was a way to get around the glass ceiling.

And contrary to popular belief, most of you aren’t business-owners-by-inheritance. You aren’t just the wives or daughters of business owners. Studies show that women tend to establish, rather than acquire, their businesses.

And now that you own these businesses, you manage your employees a little differently than your male counterparts.

Women-owned firms in the U.S. are more likely than all firms to offer flextime and profit-sharing to their workers.

You understand that education is the basis for individual accomplishment so you are also more likely to encourage further education for your employees through tuition reimbursement.

You understand the need for more flexibility, the challenge of balancing work and family—after all, that was one of the greatest benefits of becoming your own boss.

You have special concerns about retirement, because women are still catching up from the days when it wasn’t considered important for a woman to save—she would just rely on her husband’s pension.

And I believe that you are more aware of the importance of health-care coverage… because the bottom line is that women are the primary health care decision-makers for themselves and their families.

This Administration understands your concerns and is intent on addressing them.

In that speech that President Bush gave in March to over 1,400women entrepreneurs, he outlined a number of actions designed to promote and protect small-business owners—a group that he knows is critical to our economy and way of life… creating two-thirds of America’s net new jobs.

He talked about simplifying the tax code and allowing small firms to use the cash accounting method, as opposed to the accrual method, of accounting… something that is going to save you both time and money.

The president also talked about enforcing the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA)… he said OMB director Mitch Daniels will not be accepting any regulations that do not calculate the cost on America’s small businesses!

And he spoke passionately about his dedication to really, permanently eliminating the death tax… and establishing Association Health Plans (AHPs) to make health care more available to the owners and employees of small firms.

The President’s dedication to small business a good example of his deep concern for our nation’s economy.

This Administration took office when the economy was in a deeper recession than had been reported. In 2001, our economy experienced three quarters of negative growth. Manufacturing had been in the doldrums since August 2000. The high tech bubble had peaked in March 2000.

Our economy was turning around when the attacks of September 11^th occurred. The terrorists’ attack on September 11^th was an attack on the basic freedoms of our country—our political freedom, our economic freedom, and our religious freedom.

Those attacks sent shock waves through the economy and caused a loss of 1.5 million jobs—primarily in the transportation, tourism, hospitality industries.

In the last three quarters, we have seen three straight quarters of positive growth. It is a testament to the resiliency and strength of our free enterprise system that our economy has been on the road to recovery so quickly.

The economy is moving in the right direction. Inflation is low. Interest rates are at their lowest levels in decades. Productivity numbers are the strongest in the world. Consumer spending, auto and housing sales are all strong as well.

Equally important, the President has moved quickly to restore faith and confidence in the integrity of our financial markets and economy.

The President’s corporate governance plan strikes at the very heart of greed, deception and fraud. It mandates clarity and transparency in key business practices. It ensures better, clearer information for investors. It establishes a stronger, more independent audit system. And it insists that CEOs personally certify their annual earnings statements and reports. These are just a few of the reforms that will add up to a stronger and healthier system of accountability. This Administration is prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law those who have abused the laws and public trust.

But he and I are not satisfied when it comes to stimulating the economy. That’s why he fought so hard for Congressional passage of new Trade Promotion Authority. For those who may be hurt by foreign trade, there is Trade Adjustment Assistance to provide assistance on top of unemployment insurance benefits. Trade Promotion Authority will help open foreign markets to American goods and services, increase exports, and help create jobs.

The President has also asked the Senate to pass the Terrorism Insurance bill, which will help the construction of more than $10 billion in projects.

Our nation also needs a new energy bill—we need to be energy independent and the President’s proposed energy bill will create over 300,000 new jobs.

His proposal for pension reform was passed by the House earlier in the summer and is now awaiting action in the Senate.

Finally, he is working to make tax cuts permanent. Without the President’s tax cut of last year, the economy would have suffered even more. Making them permanent is necessary for continued economic stimulus.

One of the most important things we are working on at the Department of Labor as part of the President’s agenda—for workers and for small businesses—is expanding the flexibility of employers like yourselves to offer compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay to your employees. We understand that balancing work and family is increasingly difficult, especially for women, so we want to make policy changes that give employers and employees more options, more flexibility to juggle the many demands on your lives.

We also know that keeping up with all of the Department of Labor’s regulations can be time-consuming, costly, and even frightening for you. As small-business owners, you usually don’t have a staff of lawyers and human resource managers to keep track of all the rules and regulations, so you worry that you might be breaking laws that you don’t even know about.

That’s why we’re working hard to help you navigate your way through the Department’s exhaustive list of rules and regulations.

At the Department of Labor, Compliance Assistance is a reality, not just another government slogan.

All of the Department’s agencies are asked to offer more help and information to employers who really want to comply with the Department’s rules, but aren’t sure how to navigate the thicket of sometimes conflicting regulations.

You will not be surprised to learn, of course, that the concept that the government has to do a better job of communicating all the rules and regulations it is promulgating, that it has a responsibility to make more transparent its regulatory jungle is a novel thought!

Let me emphasize we are not slacking off on enforcement of those who deliberately break the law. But, even the Clinton Administration acknowledged that most businesses obey the law and it’s a handful that don’t. Our enforcement will be more effective because they will be targeted on the small percentage of “bad actors.”

The Government has a responsibility to help the regulated community comply with the myriad of rules and regulations that are promulgated every year. Government regulations should be transparent, clear, easy to understand and administer because that’s the best way to help protect workers. Government should help educate the regulated community as to what is required and develops tools to help employers comply with the confusing thicket of government rules and regulations.

Thus far, we have developed compliance materials in plain English. We’ve also developed on-line programs that answer your questions and direct you to information that is easy to understand.

Again, because we believe that workers are best protected when the employers understand the rules and receive help to comply with all the rules and regulations.

The Department has established a toll-free help line—1-866-4-USA-DOL—for people who need assistance in understanding how to comply.

You can be confident that the people who answer these phones are being paid to help you. There is no Caller I.D.

This Administration’s overarching goal is one that everyone in this room shares: to promote a safer workplace and protect employees. The difference is that, now, the federal government will also share the responsibility to help you achieve that goal.

We’re also making sure that smaller business owners finally have a fair shot at competing for federal contracts by having the federal government stop “bundling” large contracts.

Today, we’re looking to level the playing field by unbundling these large federal contracts. The Department of Labor now has a special Procurement Review Board to ensure that our contract solicitation process allows the widest possible group of people to bid.

Last year alone, we awarded nearly $74 million in contracts to women–owned businesses. To compete, just get online, click to our website www.dol.gov, and then over to our Office of Small Business. There you will find the Small Business Procurement Power Page – giving you all the details you need to become one of our vendors.

The last—and perhaps most important—issue I want to address is that of health care coverage for small businesses. The President and I are committed to helping you address the healthcare issues in your company. This administration is acutely aware of the fact that more than half of the 39 million Americans without health insurance are self-employed or work for small businesses.

We know that you want to provide healthcare insurance to your employees and their families. We understand that the causes behind prohibitively high health insurance costs are complex, including soaring medical inflation, expensive state mandates, increased litigation, and the expense that comes from multiple layers of regulation. We want every small business to have the same ability to pool risk and reduce costs as large employers have. And that is why this Administration strongly supports Association Health Plans.

In closing, I want you to know that we at the Labor Department are working to make your lives easier so you can provide jobs and opportunity and be a valuable part of your community.

We have started an e-news letter for working women that I hope all of you will consider signing up. To do so, visit our website, www.dol.gov, then clicking on our Women’s Bureau home page. It’s a way for us to keep in touch, and that’s important to us.

Thanks again for all that you do to make our country economically vibrant and dynamic. Because of you, your daughters and other young girls are now inheriting businesses, wealth, and financial independence from their mothers.

I hope you will have a great conference! Do network and gather a lot of information from today’s panels and talks. It’s great to be with you. God bless you and God bless America.

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