Biography
As EPI’s director of government relations, Samantha Sanders worked to ensure that policymakers and advocates have access to EPI research and initiatives that support their efforts to improve wages and working conditions for low- to middle-income workers and their families. Before joining EPI in 2017, Sanders served as a policy advisor in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, where she worked closely with agency leadership on issues including the future of work and employment, the final regulation updating overtime pay protections for millions of workers, communications and public engagement, strategic enforcement of labor standards, and more. Prior to joining DOL, Sanders led digital communications for the Religious Action Center, a faith-based policy advocacy organization.
Sanders is a native of the Washington, D.C., region. Outside of the office, she can be found rehearsing with the 18th Street Singers (a community choir), volunteering, or overusing the DC Library’s fantastic reservation system.
Education
B.A. East Asian Studies, Yale University
By Content:
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First Day Fairness: An agenda to build worker power and ensure job quality
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Letter to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce opposing the Workflex in the 21st Century Act
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Renegotiating NAFTA: What should the priorities be?
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What’s at stake in the states if the 2016 federal raise to the overtime pay threshold is not preserved—and what states can do about it: State action to modernize overtime rules (research report)
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State action to save workers’ overtime pay: Fact sheet for “What’s at stake in the states if the federal raise to the overtime pay threshold is not resurrected—and what states can do about it”
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Specific policy and legislative guidance for updating state overtime protections: State action to modernize overtime rules (policy guidance)
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Letter to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions regarding Cheryl Stanton
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Policy Watch: Two more foxes nominated to run hen houses in the Trump administration
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Policy Watch: Spring Regulatory Agenda puts corporations first
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Policy Watch: Cuts to DOL budget, attacks on joint employer standard
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DHS and DOL should focus on improving protections for H-2B and U.S. workers rather than expanding a flawed guestworker program
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How President Trump and congressional Republicans are undercutting wages and protections for working people