Prevailing Wage Used to Stymie Immigration Debate

The Davis-Bacon Act was initiated and passed by a bipartisan Congress in 1931 to ensure that a community’s wages were not undercut by unscrupulous contractors. Since then, this law and its state equivalents have protected the living standards of construction workers.

Repeated attempts by the Republican-controlled Congress and anti-worker groups to repeal prevailing wage protections have failed because they have been unable to prove that doing so would save taxpayers money or make the construction process more efficient. In fact, studies have shown the opposite.

Now they are trying a new tactic by spreading misinformation as to how the Davis-Bacon provision in the Senate immigration legislation (S. 2611 – the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006) would impact American workers.

In July, the Republican Policy Committee (RPC) issued a report titled Davis-Bacon Expanded to Private Projects in Senate Immigration Bill alleging that S. 2611 contains a “significant expansion” of the Davis-Bacon Act that would require employers to pay foreign guest workers higher wages than paid to American workers.

Both allegations are false and misleading. Instead of undermining the position of American workers, including the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections actually protects American workers by preventing the exploitation of guest workers.

Contrary to the misinformation spread by the RPC, the inclusion of the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provision would not harm American workers, and would not give higher wages or more rights to foreign guest workers.

FACT: S. 2611 would require prospective employers of foreign guest workers to attest and certify that they had made a good faith effort to recruit and employ American workers, and were unable to find qualified Americans available to work. To ensure that employers make this “good faith effort,” the proposed legislation would require an employer to offer American workers not less than the “Prevailing Wage Level” applicable to the job. If no qualified American workers can be found, the employer would be allowed to use guest workers, and pay them the same “Prevailing Wage Level.” In other words, the employer would not be allowed to exploit these workers by paying them less than the prevailing wage.

FACT: The prevailing wage provision in S. 2611 is modeled after a procedure used by the Department of Labor for the last 40 years.

Contrary to the misinformation spread by the RPC, the inclusion of the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provision would not harm American workers, and would not give higher wages or more rights to foreign guest workers.