Davis-Bacon Pork

DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND MY OBJECTION TO THE DAVIS-BACON BILL. MY SON HAS WORKED UNDER DAVIS-BACON RULES AS REGARDS WORK SITE SAFETY AND JOB SPECIFICATIONS AS WELL AS RECEIVING A HIGHER PAY THAN STRAIGHT CONTRACTOR PAY, IN SOME CASES THE CONTRACTOR USING UNION (DAVIS-BACON TYPES) RATHER THAN NON-UNION SHOPS IS SOME WORKERS HAVE A BIT MORE EXPERIENCE. THE PAY HOWEVER IS THE SAME, UNION OR NON=UNION.

I DO BELIEVE THAT POLITICIANS MUST BELONG TO A UNION THAT CERTIFIES THAT WHAT WE GET IS WORTH THE EXPENSE. ALL OF THOSE IN US GOVT SERVICE SHOULD WALK BACKWARD TO RECEIVE THEIR CHECKS, NO COMPETENCE NO PAY, AND START WITH 511 PLUS IDIOTS ALREADY THERE. DAVE ANDERSON




Davis-Bacon Pork



By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, March 10, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Labor: The stimulus bill wastes billions by requiring that labor on funded construction projects be paid a "prevailing," meaning union, wage. Why should our infrastructure be rebuilt under a Jim Crow era law intended to block minorities?

The Depression-era Davis-Bacon Act is applied throughout the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1). The original law, passed in 1931, required federal construction contractors to pay what is determined to be the "prevailing wage" in a given area.

The law was introduced and passed to block wage competition from black construction workers following an Alabama contractor's successful bid on a federal construction project on Long Island in 1927.

At the Department of Labor, two agencies gather information related to wages and labor: the Wage and Labor Division (WHD) as well as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It is the WHD that has the job of calculating the prevailing wage under the Davis-Bacon Act.

A 2008 study by Suffolk University and the Beacon Hill Institute found that WHD prevailing wage estimates were 22% higher than the BLS average reported wages paid in various cities. The reason is madness in the WHD's method.

According to the Suffolk study, the structure of the WHD methodology results in lower participation from small and midsize firms, provides an opportunity for unions to dominate the process of reporting wages, and lets as few as 12.5% of survey respondents set wages for the entire universe of workers.

In contrast, the BLS uses the Occupational Employment Survey, which collects wage data from more than 1.2 million establishments. Thus BLS wage estimates rely on a much larger sample that better represents wages that prevail in the labor market.

The application of the Davis-Bacon Act to stimulus projects ensures that stimulus dollars will not go as far as they otherwise could. That will result in fewer people getting jobs while raising the cost of everything we build. According to the Heritage Foundation, Davis-Bacon provisions will drive up construction costs on the $188 billion worth of construction projects in HR 1 by $17 billion.

According to Heritage, WHD's methodology is "unscientific" and relies on "outdated" surveys to produce "inaccurate" information. Heritage describes the BLS as an agency "that accurately estimates wage statistics using scientific methods."

The differences between the two can be significant.

On Long Island, N.Y., for example, market rates for plumbers calculated the BLS way are $29.68 an hour. Davis-Bacon rates calculated by the WHD are $44.75 — 51% higher.

The infrastructure money in the stimulus could have gone further if we had ignored the WHD's pro-union "prevailing wage" and did a better job of spreading the wealth around.



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