Proposed changes to Davis-Bacon Act prompt torrent of comments

On March 18, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register (https://bit.ly/38L6FLN), proposing for perhaps the most sweeping revisions to the rules governing Davis-Bacon Act (DBA) enforcement since the Reagan administration’s 1982 reforms.

Background on DBA

The DBA was passed in 1931 to require federal government construction contractors on covered public works projects to pay the “prevailing wage” to workers performing covered work in the region where the work is being performed. The stated intent of the bill sponsors was to protect higher-paid workers during the Great Depression—many of whom were union workers—from “race to the bottom” wage competition.

The original rule allowed wage rates to be found “prevailing” if voluntary wage surveys found a single wage to be paid to 30% of the local workforce in a given trade, if no wage rate was found prevailing among a majority of the workforce. As intended, this heavily favored the higher union wages. The DBA was subject to persistent criticism as being inherently prounion and inflationary. During the Reagan administration, a number of amendments were made, the most important of which was that the prevailing wage was changed so that a 50% standard was established.

Proposed changes