Just how much money is the Department of Labor requesting for fiscal year 2015? Enough to make a pharaoh or two happy.

During a March 26 House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) briefly put DOL’s budget into historical perspective for Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez.

“I could build the pyramids with your budget,” Rokita said as an aside.

It’s a snarky comment, one I interpret as attempting to negatively convey just how much money the Department of Labor is requesting.

But Rokita’s right – DOL’s budget request of $12 billion is enough money to build the Great Pyramid of Giza. Two of them, in fact.

Let’s be blunt – $12 billion is a lot of money. But in the grand scheme of things, DOL’s budget request is 0.3 percent of the total U.S. budget.

For less than half a penny on the dollar, DOL works to ensure workers have a safe environment in which to earn a living, ensure those wages are fair, and much, much more.

Workers who constructed the Great Pyramid of Giza could have probably only hoped for such bang for the pharaoh’s buck.

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