beta.sam.gov goes live with Wage Determinations and Other Resources
Don't keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone.”
― Alexander Graham Bell
On Thursday June 14, 2019 the Department of Labor (“DOL”) shut down their old wage determination online website at WDOL.com and transferred the information to https://beta.sam.gov/help/wage-determinations. We told this day was coming. https://www.awrcounsel.com/blog/2019/4/17/soon-wdolgov-is-dead-long-live-betasamgov. As many who have used the site will remember the old interface and design was antiquated. However, it contained a lot of helpful information. An ideal new website would update the interface, make it more user friendly, as well as contain all of the helpful information that was contained on the old website. After some initial clicking around it looks like the library has most of the relevant information from the WDOL site. The new website is still in beta which means that we should expect some changes in the future until the website is completely finished. As of right now there is no access to the old website.
Beta.sam.gov is an attempt to merge several of the General Service Administration’s legacy sites. So, the new website will be the place to obtain wage determinations, research contract opportunities, review awarded contract data, collect existing entity information, register your business with the government, review the federal hierarchy, and find assistance listings. Not all of these previous legacy websites have closed down; the Sam.gov website for entity information is still working as is the federal procurement data system and fed biz ops for business opportunities. So, as of June 18, 2019, beta.sam.gov is just the official website to find Wage Determinations and Assistance Listings.
The website merges different legacy sites so the home page allows you to pick between searching for Wage Determinations (“WDs”) and Assistance Listings. There are also “about” pages for each search and its contents. Once you reach the WD search engine, there are options to filter results by keywords, date revised, date range, location, and WD type (Service Contract Act (“SCA”), Davis-Bacon Act (“DBA”), or Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”)). However, the search engine is finnicky. Searching by keyword does not really work. For example, if you were to search for Aircrew Painters in Berkshire, Massachusetts then using keywords will not yield results for “Aircrew Painters” despite their being a named position found using different filters and without keywords. Most of the time using the location filter works best. Although, in some states, searching by county will end with a “no Wage Determinations were found” message even though, if you scroll through the results of the state, it is clear that there are SCA covered WD’s in each county. Searching by location, then narrowing results by county, if the services were performed previously, CBA information, and non-standard services works similarly to the old website at WDOL.com.
Nonetheless, the beta.sam.gov website makes it much easier to search wage determinations over a period of time than the old WDOL website. Archived wage determinations can be searched just like active WDs, so if the WD number changed in the past it should still show up in the search. There used to be an issue of finding prior wage determinations in a location if the WD number had changed. Alternatively, if you know the DBA or SCA wage determination number, you can use that to get a more direct result. Searching for DBA and SCA WD’s works the same. But there is no location search for CBAs -- only date and keyword search. The keyword search will only spit out results if it contains the CBA number or the state/county information.
If you cannot find an applicable WD or know that one doesn’t exist, the website will direct you to fill out an e-98 Form to request a WD from the DOL. It also provides a quick start guide to learn how to navigate the WD search engine. There is also contact information for the labor advisors for some federal agencies for a particular issue involving that contracting agency.
Others may remember the vast library that was contained in the old website. Some of that is represented here; there are copies of the SCA and DBA as well as reference information for the directory of SCA covered positions, forms, standards, and links to administrative review board decisions. The website also contains conformance information and inter-agency DOL memos. You have to drill down into the website to find these resources. They are difficult to find. Look on the website under Resources – Wage Determinations, or go this URL: https://beta.sam.gov/help/wage-determination-resources.
All of this information can be found online for free regardless of the user’s account status. However, there are some benefits like being able to save searches and download documents. Depending on the type of account, users are also able to share their CBA agreements on the website which allows other employers and employees public access to the information.
The site is still a work in progress and in “beta”, but the Wage Determination sections seem to be finished. Most of the work to be done will be porting the other legacy websites such as the Entity Registration, Fed Bizz Ops and procurement information system to the new Sam website. Some improvements that could be done are overall intuitiveness because the information can be difficult to find, and the keyword search is difficult to use and limited. The home screen of the website can be found at https://beta.sam.gov/. Hopefully the website makes it easier for employers to comply with the requirements of the Service Contract Act and Davis-Bacon Act, or at least does no harm.