Raymond J. Donovan

ME267-9, Raymond Donovan, Secretary of Labor, 1981-85. Michael Evans Portrait Project Photograph Collection; Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, CA.

Raymond J. DonovanUnited States Secretary of Labor (1981-1985)

Raymond J. Donovan was born August 31, 1930, in Bayonne, New Jersey. He received a B.A. in philosophy from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana. He worked for the American Insurance Company and Schiavone Construction Company and became its vice president in charge of labor relations, finance, bonding and real estate in 1959. He later became executive vice president of Schiavone in 1971. He served as Secretary of Labor from February 4, 1981 to March 15, 1985. While Secretary, he reduced the department's staff and budget; gave regulatory relief for business through changes in Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement practices; made revisions in the Davis-Bacon rules; modified Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) rules; and made new industrial home work rules and revisions in the federal compliance regulations. From 1981 to 1982, special prosecutor Leon Silverman investigated allegations that he was present when another official of Schiavone Construction Company made an illegal cash payment to a union representative in May or June 1977. The special prosecutor reported insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution and dismissed subsequent allegations.