Harris Announces Rule to Raise Wage Standards for Construction Workers

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced a new rule to raise wage standards over time for construction workers, a change that will provide them with thousands of extra dollars per year, senior Biden administration officials said.

Harris, who has met with workers and labor leaders across the country as chair of the White House labor task force, made the announcement in Philadelphia while highlighting the administration’s investments in infrastructure and meeting with union construction workers and leaders. She also received a briefing at the construction site of the Betsy Ross off-ramp to I-95.

The new rule will update prevailing wage regulations under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, which require that workers on federally funded and assisted construction projects are paid locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits.

The prevailing wage standards currently impact more than 1 million construction workers that are delivering $200 billion of federally funded or assisted construction projects. The administration expects that number will continue to grow, given that nearly all of the significant construction programs under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS research and manufacturing law and the Inflation Reduction Act require or strongly encourage the use of Davis-Bacon prevailing wages.

“These regulations have not been updated in more than 40 years,” a senior administration official said. “So workers are paid less than intended by the Act.”

The rule, which will become effective 60 days after it is published in the federal register, will restore the Department of Labor’s definition of “prevailing wage” used before changes during the Reagan administration. It will also make it easier to keep prevailing wages up to date and add a new anti-retaliation provision in contract clauses to protect workers, according to senior administration officials.