Posts tagged Davis-Bacon
Counterpoint: Davis-Bacon Requires Pork Spending, Costs Taxpayers Billions
October 23, 2023 // The Davis-Bacon Act was passed in 1931 and was initially meant to counter a Depression-era practice of literally busing in workers from a lower-paying region so employers didn’t have to hire local workers who would not work for the wages being offered. This practice benefitted many workers, frequently African-Americans, who lived in poor regions with little work. Busing in unskilled labor is rarely a factor with the law, as most federal projects involve skilled labor. The present-day purpose behind the Davis-Bacon Act is to boost unions. The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division is the entity that surveys businesses and determines the prevailing wage for these types of projects. This wage mirrors what companies with collective bargaining contracts — union wages — pay their workers. Unions that drive up their members’ wages are thus protected from the economic consequences of doing that if their business involves federal contracts because non-unionized businesses will have to pay the same wages and, therefore lose any wage-price advantage. The AFL-CIO is one of the main boosters of the law, unsurprisingly.
Congress thwarted Biden on unions. Or did it?
June 24, 2022 // “One of the biggest problems with this DOL is its obvious union favoritism,” the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), said at a hearing this month. “This department has bowed low enough before union bosses to taste dirt. How many times has the Biden administration’s DOL kowtowed before union bosses instead of standing up for workers?” From installing former union official Marty Walsh as Labor secretary, to outfitting the National Labor Relations Board with union alums, to issuing a spate of union-friendly executive orders, the White House has taken significant steps toward expanding union membership despite the challenges presented by a narrowly divided Congress. Steve Rosenthal, Rep. Donald Norcross, Shane Larson, Communication Workers of America, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Doug Parker, Alice Stock, Lauren McFerran, Bobby Scott, Nick Niedzwiadek
Why the Biden administration’s new Davis-Bacon prevailing wage proposed rule is so troubling for Americans.
June 2, 2022 // Today’s Davis-Bacon requirements are already problematic — driving up overall federal infrastructure costs as high as 10 percent and wages over 20 percent — on top of shifting more work to union over non-union workers despite the fact that over 86 percent of construction workers are not members of a union.
Foxx, Keller Slam DOL’s Proposed Davis-Bacon Rule Change
May 18, 2022 // “We are concerned that the proposed rule does nothing to modernize the Davis-Bacon regulations and fails to address existing and longstanding criticisms of the Department’s unscientific wage survey process. The proposed rule instead reverts to a decades-old definition of prevailing wage to reward the administration’s Big Labor allies. It will increase inflation, harm taxpayers, diminish the number of infrastructure projects, and hurt small businesses. We agree the Davis-Bacon regulations have long needed updating, but this proposed rule completely misses the mark.”
Biden’s Proposed Davis-Bacon Act Reforms Are More Pork for Special Interests
March 11, 2022 // “While ABC is still reviewing the 432-page rule, it appears the DOL missed an opportunity for meaningful Davis-Bacon reform. For example, the proposed rule reverts back to 1983 regulations that do not result in actual prevailing rates, as required by statute. Reversing course by 40 years is not modernization. Instead, it is even worse public policy catering to special interests embedded in the Biden administration that benefit from the broken status quo.
House-Passed ‘America COMPETES Act’ Contains Union Neutrality, Card Check and Binding Arbitration
February 7, 2022 // The COMPETES Act contain provisions of the PRO Act, as well as the now defunct Employee Free Choice Act
What You Should Know About Democrats’ America CONCEDES Act
February 2, 2022 // Gives unions unfair advantages over small businesses and independent workers by adding Davis-Bacon provisions to previously bipartisan policies. The Davis-Bacon Act and related laws require that contractors on federally funded construction projects pay so-called “prevailing wages,” inflating federal construction costs and favoring unions.