The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 gives tax benefits to project owners who assure the payment of Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wages and benefits on certain energy construction projects. The devil, of course, is in the details.
Read MoreDOL publishes a Notice on the Federal Register listing the new Federal Contractor Minimum Wage rates starting January 1, 2023.
Read MoreNo Davis-Bacon Act price adjustment claims are allowed if the contract has a clause that requires wage and fringe benefit escalations be priced into the option year quotes.
Read MoreSometimes the wage and hour regulations cannot be taken literally. Instead, you need to figure out the regulatory intent. For example, the SCA and DBA regulations bar the employer from claiming a credit for paying social security, worker’s comp and unemployment premiums. These tax like payments are not fringe benefits. But other federal and state mandated benefit plans like Obamacare, Romneycare in Massachusetts, holidays, and leave are fringe benefits and can be credited towards compliance.
Read MoreA recent Maryland case demonstrates how state law can supplant federal law with respect to wage and hour obligations. Federal contractors must be vigilant to avoid getting caught in this sometimes quite tangled web.
Read MoreDOL issues proposed revisions to WD-10, a wage survey collection tool submitted by construction contractors. Get prepare to classify your own projects.
Read MoreAdministrative Review Board interprets DOL’s de minimis standard for truck drivers working on a DBA covered worksite.
Read MoreCareful drafting of CBAs, particularly on service contracts, should include some attention to language expressly making any state mandated fringe benefits into a CBA contractual requirement. At least that would be prudent for a contractor looking to get a price adjustment for state mandated benefits.
Read MoreFrom time to time, I see a government contracts case that sends chills down my spine. A recent decision painfully reminds me of how the law governing our unique parcel in the vast lands of the legal world is rife with hard-to-see pools of quicksand that can trap even the most sophisticated contractors.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor is set to publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing the largest overhaul to Davis-Bacon Act regulations in 40 years.
Read MorePresident Biden issued an Executive Order on February 4, 2022 that will require contractors to enter into project labor agreements for large scale federal construction projects. Although PLAs have been “encouraged” for some time, this order will transform this preference into an absolute requirement.
Read MoreDOL wants to annualize fringe benefit contributions, especially pension monies, to get contractors to pay Davis-Bacon Act fringe benefits even for non-Davis-Bacon Act work. This is variously called the annualization rule or the effective annual rate calculation. But some courts have refused to enforce the DOL annualization requirment.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor publishes a webpage hoping to educate the public about which types of projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be covered by the Davis-Bacon Act.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor announced yesterday the Wage and Hour Division plans to hire 100 investigators this year. For sure, they’ll be earnest and energized. That’s why a solid grounding in the wage and hour laws affecting the government contractor community will be a powerful tool to ensure you get a fair shake.
Read MoreThe $15 Minimum Wage Executive Order (“MW EO”) only applies on or after January 30, 2022, and then only to new contracts. It doesn’t apply to the time period worked in the prior contract under the old MW EO. For that period in 2022, all that is legally due is the $11.25 MW or any higher prevailing wage. While DOL is specifying the new $15 MW was intended to apply to hours spent performing on that new contract in 2022, that just means the new contract hours. Service and construction contractors should wait patiently for the new option year, or when the new MW EO clause is added to the contract ,and get a price adjustment for any extra costs.
Read MoreDepartment of Labor Wage and Hour Opinion Letters follow the ebb and flow of conservative and liberal executive administrations. When President Biden was inaugurated, we began a period where new Opinion Letters are a scarcity. This follows the practice of previous liberal administrations.
Read MoreThe ASBCA holds that FAR 22.404-12(c) does not require that notice be given to offers that they have the opportunity to escalate labor rates into their bid pricing even when the offers will not receive a price adjustment after a new Wage Determination is incorporated into the contract.
Read MoreThe Tenth Circuit holds that the Union in this case cannot compel the Contractor to arbitrate Davis-Bacon job classifications. However, the court did not hold that Davis-Bacon job classifications are not arbitrable. This article was written by our very own Kirby Rousseau for The Government Contractor publication.
Read MoreWhen bidding on and pricing US government extended term fixed price contracts, contractors need to price in the possibility that state minimum wages will exceed the SCA or DBA wage levels, and require an escalation be paid, but the contracting agency will not adjust the contract price for that occurrence.
Read MoreThe District of Columbia is allowing workers to bring a prevailing wage claim under the guise of a municipal statute, thereby eroding the rule that only DOL enforces the federal prevailing wage laws and there is no private cause of action.
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