The Oregon Commissioner of Labor and Industries is a nonpartisan, statewide elected position serving four-year terms, a structure unique to Oregon among U.S. states. The Commissioner leads statewide efforts to protect workers’ rights by investigating complaints and enforcing laws related to wages, hours and conditions for employment. The commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries also leads efforts to combat discrimination in housing and public accommodations based on protected class. BOLI supports employers in navigating compliance with wage and civil rights laws through education and training. The BOLI Commissioner position was created by the Oregon Legislature in 1903, and made nonpartisan in 1995. It is currently held by Christina Stephenson, who was elected in 2022 and is running for a second term.
Each candidate received a questionnaire containing three questions. Candidates were limited to 150 words per answer. Candidates submitted written responses via email, and may be edited for clarity. Read more about Street Roots elections coverage here.
Name: Christina Stephenson
City: Portland
Current occupation: Commissioner of Labor and Industries (Incumbent)
Prior political office held:
- Legislative Workgroup Member
- Commissioner of Labor and Industry 2023-present
- Board Member – Multnomah County Commission on Economic Dignity
- Elected Democratic Precinct Committee Person
Prevailing wage laws ensure tradespeople earn a fair wage when working on publicly subsidized or funded projects. Special interest groups seek to weaken these laws and/or sway BOLI to interpret laws differently to suppress wages and maximize profits. Will you stand with workers or those profiting from their labor?
I recognize the tension between housing costs and prevailing wage requirements, and I take it seriously. Oregonians are struggling with the cost of housing — and the cost of everything else right now. The law, as written today, requires some affordable housing projects to be subject to prevailing wage requirements. It is not within my authority to change that, but it is my job to enforce the law as written and ensure workers are paid what they’re owed. The policy statement written into the prevailing wage law in ORS279C.805 states that, in part, the purpose of prevailing wage law is to ensure contractors compete on the ability to perform work competently and efficiently while maintaining community-established standards. That’s really what we’re talking about here — paying the women and men of the building and construction trades a wage that reflects their local community.
BOLI faces a severe backlog of complaints, like wage theft and civil rights violations, and many complaints are closed without investigation. The Legislature approved funding to increase staff to meet increased demand, and other efforts are underway. How will you prioritize addressing this backlog, and when will BOLI become current with complaints under your leadership?
When I took office, BOLI was severely understaffed after decades of underinvestment. I told the truth about it and built the plan to fix it. We secured the largest staffing investment in BOLI’s history — 46 new positions — and we are delivering results: the wage and hour intake backlog is down 20%, the civil rights intake backlog is down 38%, and the apprenticeship compliance backlog has been eliminated entirely.
My goals are clear and transparent civil rights backlog current by mid-2026, wage and hour intake by mid-2027, and investigations by mid-2029. We have also launched an alternative dispute resolution program that has already returned millions of dollars to workers faster. The work is not finished — but we are on track, and I have the plan to get us there.
The recent BOLI audit found managerial failures, including outdated policies and a lack of strategy, contributed to the aforementioned backlog. What do you see as the managerial components of the bureau’s struggles, and how would you fix them?
I requested the audit not long after taking office because I believe transparency is an important tool to creating better outcomes for Oregonians. The findings validated what I had already identified: Years of disinvestment left BOLI without updated policies, modern systems, or sufficient staff, including managers to meet demand.
I agreed with every recommendation the audit made, and in some cases, have completed the recommendations already.
We’ve been addressing the deficiencies highlighted in several ways. The addition of training staff will allow us to further develop policies and procedures to train investigators, we’ve created an Enforcement Policy Library to ensure staff are kept abreast of changes in law, and created a customer service unit to ensure investigators can stay focused on the backlog, and trained staff can help workers navigate our systems.
These are not cosmetic changes; they are the systems that make real enforcement possible. I came in, diagnosed the problems, and have been building the infrastructure to solve them.
Name: Chris Lynch
City: Portland
Current occupation:
Compliance specialist, DCBS
Prior political office held:
- Operations manager, BOLI
- Safety enforcement manager, DCBS
- Program coordinator, BOLI
- Civil rights investigator, BOLI
Prevailing wage laws ensure tradespeople earn a fair wage when working on publicly subsidized or funded projects. Special interest groups seek to weaken these laws and/or sway BOLI to interpret laws differently to suppress wages and maximize profits. Will you stand with workers or those profiting from their labor?
I know this is currently a fraught topic, with people of good intent being torn between the need to ensure fair treatment for Oregon workers, and the need to make housing more affordable for those most in need. Ultimately, a commissioner’s duty is to interpret Oregon’s laws fairly and impartially. I have deep respect for tradespeople (I have worked as a woodworker and a roofer, and one of my siblings is a union mechanic), and as a general matter, I would not use any discretion to suppress their wages. But where affordable housing projects are involved, I would not exercise any discretion to interpret the prevailing wage statutes to increase their costs where the law allows for less costly outcomes.
BOLI faces a severe backlog of complaints, like wage theft and civil rights violations, and many complaints are closed without investigation. The Legislature approved funding to increase staff to meet increased demand, and other efforts are underway. How will you prioritize addressing this backlog, and when will BOLI become current with complaints under your leadership?
Prior to 2019, during the 14 years I worked at BOLI we had an effective system for complaint management, but it has become broken. The workers at BOLI know how to get the job done. They just haven’t had the necessary support from management to allow them to do it. I know the work, and I know the people. I am not going to offer any arbitrary dates or timelines, but I will commit to ongoing and significant improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of BOLI’s complaint processing.
The recent BOLI audit found managerial failures, including outdated policies and a lack of strategy, contributed to the aforementioned backlog. What do you see as the managerial components of the bureau’s struggles, and how would you fix them?
BOLI suffers from a lack of open communication and transparent decision-making. The current commissioner and deputy commissioner came into BOLI with no institutional knowledge, no experience leading a government agency, and no idea what a healthy BOLI looks like. As commissioner, I would emphasize collaborative problem-solving. The people who work at BOLI know the challenges, and they know the pros and cons for the various potential solutions better than anyone. I would have ongoing engagement with staff throughout the chain of command, listen to the people who know the work, make the decisions that need to be made (in writing), and acknowledge and adjust whenever those decisions don’t turn out the way we planned.
This article appears in May 6, 2026.