A Federal district court in Texas has ruled against an expansion of coverage for Davis-Bacon wage provisions that was implemented by the Biden Administration’s Department of Labor (DOL) in 2023. The provisions that were ruled improper would have:
Extended prevailing wage coverage beyond construction workers to other subcontracted employees such as materials suppliers operated by contractors or subcontractors.
Applied Davis-Bacon requirements to delivery truck drivers spending a loosely defined amount of time on jobsites. Imposed the requirements retroactively on contracts that omitted the required clauses.
The challenge to these provisions was brought by the Associated General Contractors of America, the AGC of Texas Chapter and others when the rule change was first put in place. At that time the judge issued an injunction against these provisions being implemented until the law suit was decided. The current court order officially holds unlawful and vacates all three challenged parts of the Davis-Bacon rule nationwide. The Trump Administration’s DOL did not oppose AGC’s motion for final judgment in the case making an appeal unlikely.
The 2023 rule change also restored DOL’s previous prevailing wage definition to make it equivalent to wages received by 30% of workers, rather than 50%, in a given trade locality. That change extends higher wages to more workers. It was challenged in a separate suit brought by by the Associated Builders and Contractors which has not yet been decided.