CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that he will form a "White House Task Force on Working Families," to be chaired by Vice President-elect Joe Biden, when he takes office Jan. 20.

The Obama transition team said the task force will be a "major initiative targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America." The task force will be comprised of top-level administration policy makers. In addition to regular meetings, it will conduct outreach sessions with representatives of labor, business and the advocacy communities.

"My administration will be absolutely committed to the future of America's middle-class and working families. They will be front and center every day in our work in the White House. And this task force will be one vehicle we will use to ensure that we never forget that commitment. I think it can make a great contribution to our work, and I'm grateful that the Vice President-elect has agreed to chair it," Obama said in a release announcing the idea.

Biden said the task force will "look at existing and future policies across the board and use a yard stick to measure how they are impacting the working and middle-class families: Is the number of these families growing? Are they prospering? President-elect Obama and I know the economic health of working families has eroded, and we intend to turn that around."

The head of Change to Win, an advocacy coalition of seven unions, welcomed the creation of the task force.

"Hardworking men and women are struggling to make ends meet because of stagnant wages and declining family incomes. Personal consumption is the largest component of the U.S. economy and workers' wages are the largest single source of consumer spending," Anna Burger said.

"Without action to stimulate wage increases, consumption will continue to falter, and the economy will slip deeper into recession. The 'White House Task Force on Working Families' is a vital first step toward restoring our economy and making government work for working people again," she said.

Biden and the members of the task force will work with a wide array of federal agencies that have responsibility for key issues facing middle-class and working families, and expedite administrative reforms, propose executive orders, and develop legislative and policy proposals that can be of special importance to working families, according to the plan.

Obama outlined these goals for the task force:

—Expanding education and lifelong training opportunities

—Improving work and family balance

—Restoring labor standards, including workplace safety

—Helping to protect middle-class and working-family incomes

—Protecting retirement security

Members of the task force will include the Secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Commerce, as well as the Directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.

The task force will post online any submissions to it from outside groups and will engage in "open, two-way dialogue directly with the American people," the transition team said. The task force will issue annual reports on its findings and recommendations, which will be made available to the public and will be posted on the Internet.