Remembering Labor Economist William Spriggs
The AFL-CIO is deeply saddened to announce the passing of our beloved chief economist, William Spriggs. Bill’s service to working people in the United States and around the world, and to our nation whom he served as assistant secretary of labor, will live on in the minds and hearts of those he taught, led and inspired. The labor movement extends our deepest sympathies to his wife, Jennifer, and his son, William, and join them in mourning our brother Bill Spriggs.
William Spriggs was a professor in, and former chair of, the Department of Economics at Howard University and serves as chief economist to the AFL-CIO. In his role with the AFL-CIO, he chaired the Economic Policy Working Group for the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and served on the board of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
From 2009 to 2012, Spriggs served as assistant secretary for the Office of Policy at the Department of Labor, having been appointed by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. At the time of his appointment, he also served as chairman of the Health Care Trust for UAW Retirees of the Ford Motor Co.; chairman of the UAW Retirees of the Dana Corporation Health and Welfare Trust; vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute; on the joint National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Public Administration’s Committee on the Fiscal Future for the United States; senior fellow of the Community Service Society of New York; and served on the boards of the National Employment Law Project and very briefly for the Eastern Economic Association.
Spriggs’ previous work experience includes roles leading economic policy development and research as a senior fellow and economist at the Economic Policy Institute; executive director for the Institute for Opportunity and Equality of the National Urban League; senior adviser for the Office of Government Contracting and Business Development for the U.S. Small Business Administration; senior adviser and economist for the Economics and Statistics Administration of the Department of Commerce; economist for the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress; and staff director for the independent, federal National Commission for Employment Policy. He is a former president of the National Economics Association, the organization of America’s professional black economists.
He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts and holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also taught six years at Norfolk State University and for two years at North Carolina A&T State University.
He was a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the National Academy of Public Administration.