Davis-Bacon Wage Law

I am writing to rebut George F. Will’s malicious misrepresentation of the Davis-Bacon Act (Column Right, Feb. 5). Davis-Bacon is extremely beneficial legislation which protects local communities from economic disruption when the federal government uses taxpayers’ dollars for construction. It simply requires contractors to pay construction workers on federally funded projects the minimum wage rate that already prevails in the community where the work is to be performed. The wage rates are not set by the federal government, instead they are set by the free market in each locality. The federal government merely publishes the rate that already prevails. Sometimes the published rate is the union rate; however, many times that is not the case. A good example would be the $6.10 rate, including all fringe benefits, for a laborer working on HUD housing in Madera County.

Imagine how your community would fare if it had to absorb a large number of workers who didn’t earn enough to live in the community. Where would they live? In campers parked on the street or in tents on the construction site? How would our schools absorb these transient families? What would the cost be to our community when the construction worker who lives in your neighborhood is no longer employed? What happens to local business revenues when neither the transient worker nor the unemployed local construction worker make enough to purchase goods? Construction workers are 5% of most communities’ work force.

Will attempts to cloud the act’s benefits by implying Davis-Bacon discriminates against minorities. He also states unskilled workers are denied an opportunity to enter the industry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most community wage rates include an apprenticeship rate which can be as low as 35% of the journeyman wage. In fact, 20% or more of the work force normally consists of these entry-level jobs.

Davis-Bacon has worked for six decades to protect our communities by bringing some stability to an inherently unstable industry. It clearly should be preserved.

ROBERT L. BALGENORTH, President

State Building & Construction

Trades Council of California

Pasadena

The SBCTC is an umbrella organization consisting of over 200 unions representing in excess of 285,000 union members.