Vice President Harris Announces Action to Raise Wage Standards Over Time For More Than One Million Construction Workers
Those within the construction industry should see a wage increase, and fair working conditions.
According to The White House, the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage regulations have not been comprehensively updated in more than 40 years, leaving many workers paid less than intended by the Act – and less than they deserve. In light of the new jobs created by these once-in-a generation infrastructure investments, DOL’s new rules are more important than ever to ensure fair wages for workers. In addition to ensuring good jobs for construction workers, the new rule will help attract the workforce needed to produce quality projects funded by the historic legislation and will protect existing wage standards in local communities.
Specifically, DOL’s new rule to update Davis-Bacon prevailing wage regulations:
• Restores the DOL’s definition of “prevailing wage” used for nearly 50 years before it was upended by the Reagan administration. It will make the prevailing wage equivalent to the wage paid to at least 30% of workers, rather than 50% of workers, in a given trade in a locality. Prior to the new rule, if the majority of workers in a given trade and locality did not earn a single wage rate, then the prevailing wage was determined by the average wage in a given trade in a locality.
This average can pull down the prevailing wage if some employers pay very little. Setting the prevailing wage to the wage paid to at least 30% of workers makes it more likely that workers are paid a true prevailing wage.
• Makes it easier keep prevailing wages up to date – allowing them to keep up with wage growth. DOL must currently periodically survey contractors and other parties to update prevailing wage rates, which is resource intensive. The final rule makes this process easier by giving DOL’s Wage and Hour Administrator the express authority to adopt prevailing wages determined by state and local governments, issue wage determinations for labor classifications where insufficient data was received through the wage survey process, and update outdated wage rates.
