Seth D. Harris was the 11th United States Deputy Secretary of Labor, and served for six months as the Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor and a member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet. Nominated by President Obama in February 2009, Harris was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in May 2009, and became acting Secretary of Labor following the resignation of Hilda Solis in January 2013. Harris was also a member of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation's Board of Directors. Harris stepped down from his post on January 16, 2014. Since leaving the Obama Administration, Harris has been a Visiting Professor at the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs and a Distinguished Scholar at Cornell University's School of Industrial & Labor Relations, and a lawyer in Washington, D.C. Harris also serves on boards of directors and advises early stage companies.
Harris served as Counselor to the Secretary and in other Labor Department policymaking roles for seven years advising both President Clinton's first-term Labor Secretary Robert Reich and second-term Secretary Alexis Herman on legal, policy and management issues.
Academic career
For nine years prior to joining the Obama Administration, Harris was a Professor of Law and Director of Labor & Employment Law Programs at New York Law School. Harris's scholarship focused on the economics of labor and employment law, with a particular emphasis on the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He has also written about the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, worker organizing, and employment discrimination laws in general. Harris served as a Senior Fellow of the Life Without Limits Project of the United Cerebral Palsy Association and a member of Georgetown University Law School's Workplace Flexibility 2010 National Advisory Commission
Obama connections
Harris served as a member of the Agency Review Working Group of the Obama-Biden Transition Team with responsibility for the federal government's transportation, labor, and education agencies. Harris also chaired Obama for America's Labor, Employment and Workplace Policy Committee and Disability Policy Committee. He had served as a member of the Clinton-Gore Transition Team in 1992 and 1993.
Personal life
In 1997, Harris married Karen Beth Rosen, a social worker and psychotherapist. The couple has two sons.
Articles and books
Seth D. Harris, "Workers, Protections, and Benefits in the U.S. Gig Economy," GLOBAL LAW REVIEW
Seth D. Harris, “Is your Uber driver an ‘employee’ or an ‘independent contractor’?,” 2016 PERSPECTIVES ON WORK ___
Seth D. Harris, “The Gig Economy: How to Modernize the Rules of Work to Fit the Times,” 18 MILKEN INST. REV. 16
Seth D. Harris, “A Proposal for Modernizing Labor Laws for 21st-Century Work: The ‘Independent Worker’,” The Hamilton Project, Brookings Institution
Seth D. Harris, “Managing for Social Change: Improving Labor Department Performance in a Partisan Era,” 117 W. VA. L. REV. 987
Seth D. Harris and Michael Ashley Stein, "Workplace Disability" in Labor and Employment Law and Economics, Edward Elgar Pub., 2009, webpage: .
James P. Baker, David B. Mixner, and Seth D. Harris, The State of Disability in America: An Evaluation of the Disability Experience by the Life without Limits Project, webpage: , United Cerebral Palsy Association.
Seth D. Harris, "The Mis-Directed Debate Over the Economics of Disabilities Accommodations," in Human Resources Economics and Public Policy: Essays in Honor of Vernon M. Briggs, Jr., W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2009, webpage: .
Seth D. Harris, "Law, Economics, and Accommodations in the Internal Labor Market," 10 U. PA. J. BUS. & LAB. L. 1.
Seth D. Harris, "Disabilities Accommodations, Transaction Costs, and Mediation: Evidence from the EEOC's Mediation Program", 13 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 1 , webpage: , Social Science Research Network.
Seth D. Harris, "Don't Mourn — Reorganize!: An Introduction to the Next Wave Organizing Conference Volume", 49 N.Y.L.Sch. L. Rev. 303.
Seth D. Harris, "Innocence and The Sopranos", 49 N.Y. L. Sch L. Rev. 577.
Seth D. Harris, "Introduction: Understanding the Context for the 'Coehlo Challenge'", 48 N.Y. L. Sch. L. Rev. 711 .
Seth D. Harris, "Re-Thinking the Economics of Discrimination: US Airways v. Barnett, the ADA, and the Application of Internal Labor Markets Theory", 89 Iowa L. Rev. 123.
Seth D. Harris, "Coase's Paradox and the Inefficiency of Permanent Strike Replacements", 80 Wash. U. L.Q. 1185.
Seth D. Harris, "Conceptions of Fairness and the Fair Labor Standards Act", 18 Hofstra Lab. & Emp. L. J. 19.
Seth D. Harris, Note, "Permitting Prejudice to Govern: Equal Protection, Military Deference, and the Exclusion of Lesbians and Gay Men from the Military", 17 N.Y.U. Rev. L. Soc. Change 171.
"Old 9-to-5 Grind Begins to Look Good", Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2003 at M5.
"A Short Transition ", Washington Post, December 20, 2000 at A35.
"The Pizza Hut Subsidy", Washington Post, October 4, 2000 at A33.
