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Regulatory Update Could Mean a Raise for Construction Labor

    A proposed change to the Department of Labor’s formula for surveying earnings could lead to major wage gains for construction labor. The department uses surveys to determine the prevailing wages in different areas of the country through the 90-year-old Davis-Bacon Act. The act sets wage standards for workers on construction projects backed with federal dollars. The last major change to the rules occurred during the Reagan administration. The department has received some 37,000 comments on the potential update, and Law360 reviewed some of the most interesting.

    In the pro column:

    United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, a union, said the proposed rule tackles many of the challenges that have arisen alongside the surge in fragmentation of the construction industry. Laborers who find work through subcontractors or labor brokers or are hired as independent contractors often are not paid the prevailing wages they are entitled to, the UBC said.

    And in the con column:

    Republican U.S. House of Representatives members Virginia Foxx of North Carolina and Fred Keller of Pennsylvania criticized the Biden administration’s plan, saying it gives unions an outsized role in developing a geographic area’s wage rates. They are the top Republicans, respectively, on the House Education and Labor Committee and its Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, which oversees prevailing wages.