Labor Department: Wage data used for Davis-Bacon may be flawed

A top Labor Department official told the House Education and Workforce Committee Tuesday that the underlying data they provide to calculate wage rates under the Davis-Bacon Act had several limitations and could include “large sampling error(s).”

Davis-Bacon is a law that requires contractors engaged in any federally funded construction project to affirm that they are paying workers the prevailing local wage. Big Business dislikes the law, calling it a time-consuming and often subjective process. The law is strongly favored by Big Labor, though, since it serves to remove any economic incentive to hire nonunion labor.