Karen Nussbaum (born April 25, 1950) is an American labor leader and founding director of Working America.

Her parents were active in the anti-Vietnam movement and worked to bring speakers to their community of Highland Park in Chicago including Staughton Lynd.

[citation needed] During this time, the family was also receiving hate mail from the local John Birch Society.

As a radical activist, Nussbaum realized that her job in life was to organize powerful unions for groups overlooked by the labor movement.

[2][3][4] During the Clinton Administration, Nussbaum served as the director of the Women's Bureau in the United States Department of Labor from 1993 to 1996.

[8] During her time, a study by her group found that nearly half of the wage gap between men and women is accredited to discrimination.