Altmeyer became interested in social and labor policies when he learned about Commons' role as the principal author of Wisconsin's workmen's compensation program, which was then the only one in the United States.

They and others at Wisconsin were proponents of the progressive, liberal social policy of a positive and vigorous role for government.

In this position Altmeyer oversaw Wisconsin's worker's compensation program and developed and implemented the state's unemployment insurance system which was the first of its kind in the U.S.

In 1927, he went on leave to assume a temporary federal position in the Great Lakes Region with responsibility for implementing the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act.

[3] In June, 1934, Altmeyer, acting upon instructions from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Secretary Perkins and Presidential Adviser Harry Hopkins, drafted for the president Executive Order 6757, which provided for creation of a Committee on Economic Security, the committee which oversaw drafting of the bill which became the Social Security Act of 1935.

The Committee selected as its Executive Director Edwin E. Witte of the Economics Department at the University of Wisconsin and an expert in labor legislation.

Altmeyer hired Wilbur J. Cohen as an aide, and Frank Bane as first executive director of the Social Security Board.

This sentence from a speech in 1943 summarizes his view: I believe that we should be thinking in terms of developing for this country a unified comprehensive system of contributory social insurance which would cover all of the major economic hazards to which the workers of this country are subjected, namely, old age, disability, death, and unemployment.Following revisions to the act in 1946 creating the Social Security Administration, Altmeyer was appointed Commissioner for Social Security.

After public outcry because Altmeyer's job was eliminated a few days before he could retire with benefits, Eisenhower's administration offered him a one-month appointment to a position, but he refused to accept being paid for a non-job.

[6][7] Altmeyer later served in a variety of United Nations posts, advising other countries on social security and labor issues.