WASHINGTON, May 16—The flawed method used by the federal government to calculate “prevailing wages” under the 91-year-old Davis-Bacon Act adds at least 7.2% to the cost of federal and federally assisted construction projects and inflates wages by 20.2% compared to local market averages, according to a new report from the Beacon Hill Institute. Associated Builders and Contractors has called on the U.S. Department of Labor to modernize its wage determination process for decades, but a proposed rule the agency released on March 18 actually makes this archaic and unscientific process even more inaccurate, inflationary and biased.
In the report, “The Federal Davis-Bacon Act: Mismeasuring the Prevailing Wage,” BHI examined the DOL Wage and Hour Division’s methodology that determines how much contractors are required to pay to construction workers on taxpayer-funded projects subject to DBA regulations. The report found that the DOL’s methodology produces government wage determinations that do not reflect local area standards and are not statistically accurate. These findings are consistent with reports critical of the DOL’s methodology by the DOL Office of Inspector General, the Government Accountability Office and think tanks published over the last 50 years.
“There is a general unawareness of the arcane statistical calculations undertaken by the U.S. DOL WHD that inflate costs. Since the law is intended to reduce wage competition, the government authorities responsible for...
MANILA, Philippines — The petition filed by Vice President Sara Duterte seeking to stop impeachment proceedings against her should be junked by the Supreme Court (SC) due to fraudulent claims, Bic...