[4] Its formation led to competition with the Public Health Service's Division of Industrial Hygiene over whether a regulatory or advisory agency should coordinate state and local industrial hygiene agencies,[5][6] with PHS emphasizing a role as a non-partisan provider of scientific data, while the Department of Labor actively advocated for labor unions' efforts to improve work conditions.
[8] In 1934, Molly Dewson and Frances Perkins encouraged Beyer to take the new position of Associate Director in the Division of Labor Standards.
[9] Beyer working on American labor issues including apprenticeship, vocational education, and programs for elderly and migrant workers.
Beyer's bureau helped Ben Cohen and Thomas Corcoran draft the legislation, and when Beyer herself was resisted by organized laborers who worried that minimum wage would lower wages overall, she worked with Congresswoman Mary T. Norton to lobby William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor.
With his support, the law passed, and when the act was challenged and appealed to the Supreme Court, Beyer helped prepare the government's successful defense.