Davis-Bacon and prevailing wages on federal construction
The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts require contractors and subcontractors on covered federal construction to pay workers at least the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits for the work, as determined by the U.S. Department of Labor.
This guide is a map, not the rule. It tells you what the rule is, where the primary text lives, and what our desks watch in the decisions and rule changes that move it. Read the primary source before you rely on anything here.
The rule, and where it lives
The statute is the Davis-Bacon Act, now codified at 40 U.S.C. §§ 3141–3148. The day-to-day requirements are in the Department of Labor's regulations:
- 29 CFR Part 1 — procedures for predetermining the wage rates.
- 29 CFR Part 3 — contractor payrolls and deductions (the Copeland anti-kickback provisions).
- 29 CFR Part 5 — the labor standards provisions, including the contract clauses and certified-payroll requirements.
The wage rates themselves are published as wage determinations by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division and attached to the solicitation. The Wage and Hour Division's government-contracts construction page is the agency's own index of the rules and the wage determinations.
Why it matters for your next bid
Prevailing wages are a cost input the moment you price work; a wage determination in the solicitation is part of the contract, and a modification can change it. Payroll reporting (the certified payroll under 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)) is a compliance obligation that can be audited long after the job is done. Our desks watch for the classification and conformance questions, the “site of the work” questions, and the wage-determination changes that reach a federal construction job.
Where we cover it
The weekly Decisions Desk reports what a court, a board or the Wage and Hour Division did and what it means for a bid. The monthly issue collects the month's items; the archive is part of the subscription.