He was Assistant Secretary of Labor during the Clinton Administration, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee University.

[4] and the 2022 Labor and Employment Relations Association Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award.

[6] He was the seventh African American to earn a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, following Sadie T. M. Alexander, the first African American of either gender to earn a Ph.D. in economics in the U.S. Anderson worked for the Bureau of Labor Statistics,[7] and then became the second African American member of the Wharton School faculty,[1] and the first to be awarded tenure there.

[6] He was among the founders of the Caucus of Black Economists in 1969,[8] now the National Economic Association, and has served as that organization's president.

Anderson was appointed as Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employment Standards Administration by President William J. Clinton in 1993, and was confirmed by the Senate for this position in February 1994.