The Davis-Bacon Act, originally passed in 1931, uses pay surveys administered by the DOL to set the prevailing wage in a federally funded project’s location. The process can be complicated and cumbersome for contractors and has elicited concerns that it skews wage rates.
Under the current process, at least 51% of surveyed wages need to be within a “same or similar” margin. If they’re not, the weighted average — as opposed to a simple average — of all wages is used. That means more frequent occurrences of low wages could drag down the overall rate.
