Gary Burtless (born April 11, 1950) is an American economist. He received his A.B. from Yale University in 1972 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. He worked as an economist from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1977 to 1979 and the U.S. Department of Labor from 1979 to 1981.