White House and Department of Labor (DOL) staff attempts to lower contractor margins and raise public-construction costs hit a roadblock late last month in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Lubbock Division. Associated General Contractors of America-led plaintiffs prevailed in a challenge to three provisions in the DOL’s “Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations” final rule,…
Read MoreAn Associated Builders and Contractors and the ABC Southeast Texas lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division to vacate the Department of Labor’s Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations (DBA) rule, implemented in October and applicable to federal or federally assisted construction projects. Plaintiffs challenge the new rule’s prevailing wage definition, wage…
Read MoreSources: Associated Builders and Contractors, Washington, D.C.; CP staff An Associated Builders and Contractors and the ABC Southeast Texas lawsuit states a case for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division to vacate the Department of Labor’s Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations (DBA) rule, implemented in October and applicable to federal or federally…
Read MoreSources: U.S. Department of Labor The Labor Department Wage and Hour Division will offer online seminars for contracting agencies, contractors, unions, workers and other project stakeholders on the requirements for paying prevailing wages on federally funded construction. Part of the division’s effort to increase awareness and improve compliance, the seminars will include recorded training videos on a variety of Davis-Bacon…
Read MoreSources: Associated Builders and Contractors, Washington, D.C.; CP staff The Department of Labor’s flawed method of calculating “prevailing wages” under the 91-year-old Davis-Bacon Act adds at least 7.2 percent to the cost of federal and federally assisted construction projects and inflates wages by 20.2 percent compared to local market averages, according to a new report from the Beacon Hill Institute,…
Read MoreSources: U.S. Department of Labor; Associated Builders and Contractors, Washington, D.C.; CP staff The Labor Department Wage and Hour Division (WHD) will soon open a public comment period for its formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, “Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations” (DBRA). Regulatory changes outlined will improve WHD’s ability to administer and enforce DBRA labor standards on federally funded…
Read MoreSources: U.S. Department of Labor, Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust, Washington, D.C.; CP staff A White House Spring 2021 regulatory update, coupled with a U.S. Senate vote on a Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act amendment, illustrate administrative and legislative branch underpinnings for contentious statutes affecting construction: the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts (Davis-Bacon or DBRA).
Read MoreSources: U.S. Department of Labor; CP staff
Idaho Falls, Idaho-based JM Concrete Inc. has paid $92,290 in back wages to 27 carpenters, drivers, general laborers and power equipment operators who performed work on the Lorenzo Bridge Rehabilitation, a $1.8 million contract on State Highway 20 in Jefferson and Madison counties. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators cited Davis-Bacon Act violations when they determined that the contractor failed to pay crew members prevailing wages and fringe benefits and issue paychecks weekly.
Read MoreSources: Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division; National Electrical Contractors Association, Bethesda, Md.
The Labor Department is launching https://beta.sam.gov to succeed the www.WDOL.gov website for wage determination data under the Davis-Bacon Act, plus Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) guidelines. Features of the new site include:
Read MoreSources: Associated Builders & Contractors, Washington, D.C.; CP staff
Adding to an early-2017 bill targeting the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has introduced The Opportunity in Federal Construction Act (S. 1200), which directs the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to use Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data to calculate prevailing wages for federal and federally assisted construction projects. A BLS data method would replace the current practice of relying on the DOL Wage and Hour Division to calculate Davis-Bacon-bound job wage levels.
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