James Goodley was asked by Bloomberg Law to comment on Davis-Bacon Act memoranda issued by Administrator Cheryl Stanton of the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD). In All-Agency Memorandum No. 226, the WHD has made it easier for federal contractors to pay workers under a single (rather than multiple) wage determinations. This move is potentially problematic in that, in many situations, it may allow non-union government contractors to pay their workers the (usually lower) residential wage rates for all hours worked on a project that includes some commercial construction and some residential construction. In contrast, unionized employees would typically be paid commercial wage rates for performing commercial work and residential wage rates for performing residential work.
