![]() A final rule issued earlier this month by the Department of Labor that updates the historic Davis-Bacon Act has not been enthusiastically received by the nation's construction industry. The original legislation, passed in 1931, put in place a requirement that local prevailing wages must be paid on public works projects for builders and laborers. Signed into law by President Herbert Hoover, partly as a measure combating the economics of the Great Depression, the act has been repeatedly updated and expanded through the decades. While the legislation has not been without its supporters, a study done in 2016 by the Congressional Budget Office underlined the primary reason why Davis-Bason has been unpopular in the construction industry, increasing the cost of wages in federal projects by an average of around $1.4 billion a year. The latest update of the legislation, according to the Department of Labor, is designed to ensure that "prevailing wages keep up with actual wages," while also "issuing supplemental rates for key job classifications when no survey data exists." The updating of the legislation, said Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, is designed to make sure that "workers get the fair wages and benefits they deserve on federally funded construction projects across the nation." Su added that the update will "create pathways to the middle class for more families and help level the playing field for high-road employers because companies who exploit their workers, or don't pay workers fairly, should never have a competitive advantage." Criticism of the new final rule has been issued by the Associated Builders and Contractors, which said that the one likelihood of the Labor Department determination is to add on to the "regulatory burden on small businesses, new industries, and public works projects." In a statement, Ben Brubek, vice-president of regulatory, labor, and state affairs with ABC, said the new rule will increase the probability that the Department of Labor will now "adopt union wage scales at the prevailing wage at a greater frequency than in current practice, which already adopts union wage scales at improbable rates, considering that just 11.7% of the construction industry is unionized." Similarly, the Associated General Contractors of America has issued a statement saying that while Davis-Bacon final rule "makes some improvements," it nevertheless misses an opportunity to improve the wage determination process and "further burdens over-regulated construction contractors building and upgrading the nation's infrastructure." Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, meanwhile, has issued a statement hailing the final rule, saying it will "guarantee that workers in new and existing jobs, emerging infrastructure, and clean energy sectors are paid fairly." The Labor Department's final Davis-Bacon rule came about after months of public input from construction and labor union officials, economists, and activists, among others. By Garry Boulard
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