The Department of Labor on Aug. 8 finalized an 812-page rule that contains more than 50 significant changes to the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act. Instead of modernizing and improving this deeply flawed law, those changes double down on its shortcomings.
Such massive changes make a bill introduced earlier this year by Rep. Bob Good, R-Va.—the Repeal Davis-Bacon Act—all the more important to protect taxpayers, small construction companies, and the 83% of construction workers who are not unionized.
The Davis-Bacon Act is a 1931 law that requires contractors on federally funded construction projects pay at least the local “prevailing” wage and benefits, so that federal projects don’t drag down local compensation.
While the Davis-Bacon Act no longer aims to discriminate against black workers, it blatantly discriminates against nonunionized construction workers, and it fails to achieve its goal of providing market-based compensation. That’s because the Department of Labor substitutes its own contrived, non-scientific calculations of “prevailing wages” for actual market wages. Consequently, the act drives up the costs of federal construction projects by 9.9%.
The Government Accountability Office and the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General have repeatedly...
Welcome to Reality Check, NewsGuard’s nonpartisan newsletter that tracks the false claims and conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them. Please support us by becoming a premi...