The bipartisan infrastructure bill is officially called the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” and President Joe Biden has touted it as a creator of good-paying jobs. What makes federally funded construction jobs “good” is a concept called prevailing wage — a minimum standard that federal construction contractors have to pay workers. The Department of Labor is now preparing an updated rule ahead of infrastructure projects rolling out.
The idea of setting a prevailing wage for federally funded construction projects goes back to a 1931 law called the Davis-Bacon Act.
“It’s really designed to make sure that the federal purchasing power doesn’t undercut local wages,” said Jessica Looman, acting administrator of the Labor Department’s wage and hour division.
“We do surveys of carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and we use that to set wage determinations in each local community,” she said.
So if the government is, say, building a highway in Los Angeles, workers must be paid a minimum wage for each specific type of work in that county. Contractors can’t improve their bids through, for example, cutting labor costs by bringing in cheaper crews from a neighboring county or state.
It’s particularly important because of the nature of the industry, said Esmeralda Aguilar with North America’s Building Trades Unions.
“Construction workers do not work 9 to 5, 40-hour workweeks,” she said. “And so it’s important that they have stability in wages.”
But some construction firms warn...
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