The White House soon will announce new rules on applying a minimum wage of $10.10 to federal contracting. A posting on the Office of Management and Budget’s website has indicated that the rulemaking is in its final stage, meaning the announcement could come within days.
President Obama issued an executive order in February applying the wage to all federal contracts and obligating the contractors to extend the wage to workers hired through subcontractors. The rules were scheduled to be officially announced Oct. 1 and to take effect Jan. 1.
The White House has sought to use its authority over federal contracting as a way to advance its push for a higher national minimum wage, especially since there is little hope for congressional action on a proposal to raise the wage, currently set at $7.25 an hour, to $10.10. It is also a gesture to organized labor and liberal activist groups that have been pursuing a $15 minimum wage.
The White House has used its authority over federal contracting to advance other issues as well. In July, the Labor Department made an announcement clarifying that the non-discrimination provisions of federal contracting rules also extended to transgendered people, despite the fact that the agency could not cite any instances in which that discrimination had happened.
