The Labour Department (LD, ) is a department of the government of Hong Kong, responsible for administrating labours and enhancing the wellbeing of Hong Kong's workforce.
Henry Butters was appointed the first Labour Officer ( or or ) in 1938 when the Hong Kong government was forced by London to give attention to the Chinese child labour. The Labour Department () was formally established in 1940 under the administration of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. The department is headed by a Labour Officer, tasked with securing the wellbeing of the workforce and act as a mediator between workers and businesses. It expanded in the 1940s to cater the increasing need, but fell dormant during the Japanese occupation between 1941 and 1945.
In 1947, the Labour Department was reformed into an independent agency led by a Commissioner of Labour (renamed Commissioner for Labour in 1974). The duties of this new unit enlarged quickly after the war; in 1961, over 230,000 labours from more than 6,000 factories were administered by the department.
Labour Department was later placed under the Education and Manpower Bureau, and under the Economic Development and Labour Bureau in 2002 following a governmental reorganisation, before being handed to the Labour and Welfare Bureau in 2007.