My research of the inception of required Federal Wages paid to construction workers on federal construction projects suggests that origin of the federal wage requirements are not based on what is best for the people.
What is federal wage? It dictates that workers on federal projects must be paid a wage and fringe rate set by government calculations by bureaucrats. For example, my employees are mechanical insulators, installing insulation on HVAC systems, piping, equipment, tanks etc. The federal wage rate required on a current job we are doing in Manchester, NH requires that we pay them $68 per hour.
Our guys are great insulators but their regular hourly rate averages $23/hour. There is no way in hell they should be paid $68/hour to do the same work on a government or military project. This inflated wage rate simply increases the cost to build these buildings which of course increases the tax burden on ALL of us.
I would like to see the Davis Bacon wage rates and Federal Wage rates eliminated permanently. The paperwork required for payroll on these projects requires our office staff to spend a lot of valuable time and energy to submit multiple cumbersome reports to ensure we comply with these wages. It costs us, a small company untold time and frustration.
There is no reason why the market cannot dictate fairly the wages these workers should be paid. If we don’t pay them enough, they leave the job and go elsewhere where they can make what they need. The system will self regulate proper wages. We can avoid unnecessarily high taxes on all of us by avoiding paying for inflated costs of buildings we need, In addition, the payroll costs on small businesses for taxes will decrease, allowing us to expand our businesses and better secure jobs for our employees. Please consider permanently removing federal wage requirements on construction projects owned by we the people. It’s is robbing us of personal wealth by overpaying for these buildings!