In the first quarter of , the rate of unemployment among blacks was The difference in unemployment rates between blacks and whites is especially pronounced in the construction industry. According to a recent study by the National Urban League, in the fourth quarter of , Despite the fact that the Bush administration Depart-ment of Labor attempted to alter its regulations, barriers to entry spawned by Davis-Bacon at the time of its passage remain today.
According to a study conducted by the American Enterprise Institute in , union apprenticeship programs, even if it is assumed that they no longer discriminate, strictly limit the number of enrollees and impose arbitrary educational requirements on potential applicants.
Thus, the most disadvantaged workers remain excluded from such programs. Given that unskilled workers must be paid the same wage as a skilled worker, there exists no incentive to hire the unskilled worker.
Ralph C. This defeats a major purpose in the encouragement of minority enterprise development — the creating of jobs for minorities. The Department of Labor frequently sets wages at unreasonably high levels, forcing the contractor to pay laborers consid-erably more than the market value of their work. The amount of paperwork that a contractor is required to fill out as a result of regulations governing Davis-Bacon also prevents small, minority-owned firms from seeking Davis-Bacon projects.
Many small firms do not have available personnel with the necessary expertise to complete the myriad of forms and reports the regulations require. One of the most severe problems with the current way the Davis-Bacon Act is administered is that it destroys the ability of rural and inner-city laborers and contractors to work on projects in their own communities.
This is especially ironic since this is one of the difficulties Davis-Bacon was intended to prevent. Such a claim could easily be made today by inner-city and rural contractors. This is so despite the fact that the wages normally paid by the rural contractors are only half of what union contractors in Pittsburgh tend to pay. The same is true of the inner cities, where small, minority owned open-shop firms are forced to pay union wages when working on Davis-Bacon projects, because of the high concentration of unionized workers in other parts of the city.
The result of these inflated wage rates is two-fold. First, inner-city and rural contractors are deterred from seeking Davis-Bacon contracts because they cannot afford to pay the higher wages to their employees. Second, larger and more highly unionized firms that are able to pay the higher wages are given an incentive to seek out such contracts. The results of this practice were clearly demonstrated in Los Angeles after the riots. In the parts of the city where the riots occurred, the rate of unemployment for black workers is Despite the fact that there is an ample supply of local labor to help with the rebuilding of the city, Davis-Bacon has and continues to freeze out local unskilled minority workers from those available jobs.
In those areas, the suspension of Davis-Bacon was responsible for the creation of 5, to 11, jobs. In addition to this statistical evidence, many individuals tied directly to the construction and renovation of low-cost public housing in the inner-cities have testified to the disastrous effects of the Davis-Bacon Act.
Ralph L. Jones is the president of a company that manages housing projects for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Jones was forced to hire only skilled laborers, very few of whom were minorities or residents of the developments. For obvious reasons, Higginbottom is prevented from hiring unskilled minority workers from the community.
By ruling Davis-Bacon unconstitutional, the courts will open opportunities to thousands of individuals to gain greater control over their destinies as productive members of society. The Institute for Justice challenges the Davis-Bacon Act on the grounds that it is racially discriminatory. The Act was passed with a specific intent to discriminate against blacks and immigrants, and as a result, it violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment.
In order to make this determination, the courts can look to the legislative and administrative history of the law. In the case of Davis-Bacon, such records are replete with both explicitly and implicitly racist statements. Consequently, the Act should be rendered unconstitutional. The Act prevents individuals from freely bargaining for employment opportunities, by setting the terms of such contracts at a rate beyond the means of those who would employ them, with no rational basis for doing so.
The Davis-Bacon Act has undermined the efforts of economic outsiders to find employment in the construc-tion industry for more than six decades. Borne of racial animus, the law continues to disrupt the efforts of blacks and other minorities to gain precious employment and contracting opportunities and to establish for themselves more prosperous communities.
Given the influence that the labor unions exercise over Congress and the Clinton administration, it is highly unlikely that either of these branches of government will repeal or substantially modify the Davis-Bacon Act. The only avenue that remains is litigation. Privacy Policy Last modified: January 1, Media Contact John E.
Kramer Vice President for Communications jkramer ij. Case Team. Client Martin and Nona Brazier. Client Tyrone Dash. The prevailing wage scale for the job being done is required to be openly posted for workers at the site of work by the contractor or subcontractor. The Secretary of Labor determines the prevailing wage for each class of laborers and mechanic s employed on projects of a character similar to the contracted work in that local area.
The set wages are posted on the federal site at wdol. In addition to these requirements, individual states and local cities may have their own wage requirements and these should be researched as well. It is used to conduct a wage determination survey for each state over a three year period.
The completed surveys returned from local construction companies provide the primary wage determination information. It is important to respond to these surveys because with too few respons es the DOL may resort to using info from certified payrolls from area projects for wage determination. Fair prevailing wage determinations rely greatly on completed WD forms.
The Wage and Hour Division WHD is pleased to announce that online training is now available to assist all federal, state and local contracting agencies with information on federal rules concerning prevailing wages and other labor law requirements. The training modules, presented by WHD staff and its federal agency partners, provide contracting officials with information on the process of obtaining wage determinations; adding classifications to wage determinations conformances ; compliance principles, and enforcement process under both the Davis-Bacon Act DBA and the McNamara Service Contract Act SCA.
Specifically, two training modules are currently being offered online.
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