Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), employers owe a minimum wage to their employees for all hours worked. This blog examines how that minimum wage obligation can be satisfied.
Read MorePresident Biden issued an Executive Order on February 4, 2022 that will require contractors to enter into project labor agreements for large scale federal construction projects. Although PLAs have been “encouraged” for some time, this order will transform this preference into an absolute requirement.
Read MoreDOL wants to annualize fringe benefit contributions, especially pension monies, to get contractors to pay Davis-Bacon Act fringe benefits even for non-Davis-Bacon Act work. This is variously called the annualization rule or the effective annual rate calculation. But some courts have refused to enforce the DOL annualization requirment.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor publishes a webpage hoping to educate the public about which types of projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be covered by the Davis-Bacon Act.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor announced yesterday the Wage and Hour Division plans to hire 100 investigators this year. For sure, they’ll be earnest and energized. That’s why a solid grounding in the wage and hour laws affecting the government contractor community will be a powerful tool to ensure you get a fair shake.
Read MoreThe $15 Minimum Wage Executive Order (“MW EO”) only applies on or after January 30, 2022, and then only to new contracts. It doesn’t apply to the time period worked in the prior contract under the old MW EO. For that period in 2022, all that is legally due is the $11.25 MW or any higher prevailing wage. While DOL is specifying the new $15 MW was intended to apply to hours spent performing on that new contract in 2022, that just means the new contract hours. Service and construction contractors should wait patiently for the new option year, or when the new MW EO clause is added to the contract ,and get a price adjustment for any extra costs.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor published the annual increase in Civil Money Penalties due under the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act.
Read MoreIncreasing a minimum wage rate sounds simple enough. However, in our world of federal contracting, simple ideas often get kinda complicated. Here are some of the tasks you need to do as the new Contractor Minimum Wage Executive Order gets rolled out.
Read MoreGovernment contractors tend to have a “book” of existing multi-year fixed priced contracts. This means many government contractors are locked into fixed price contracts for up to the next five or so years. Those contracts were largely bid on in a low inflation world, with modest annual price escalations built-in. It is quickly becoming apparent we live in a new paradigm of higher inflation. Thus, those fixed price contractors face the prospect of either reduced profits or even losses, as inflation takes off,
Read MoreDepartment of Labor Wage and Hour Opinion Letters follow the ebb and flow of conservative and liberal executive administrations. When President Biden was inaugurated, we began a period where new Opinion Letters are a scarcity. This follows the practice of previous liberal administrations.
Read MoreThere’s a new rule in town that kicks the definition of “commercial item” out of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (“FAR”) and replaces it with separate definitions for “commercial product” and “commercial service.” While this is not a substantive change, it should make life easier.
Read MoreThe judgments made as to how much price escalation to load into proposals for new service work for anticipated option year increases in exempt personnel wages and fringe benefits is made more complicated and important in an era of heightened inflation expectations.
Read MoreOn November 18, 2021, President Joe Biden resurrected the Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contract Executive Order after President Trump revoked the Obama administration’s prior Executive Order on the same subject.
Read MoreThe Service Contract Act price adjustment clause prohibits an adjustment for changes to the contract in the base year of performance. However, in some situations, the contractor is entitled to an adjustment through the Changes clause of their contract.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor has now issued its final rule implementing a raise in the minimum wage for workers who perform on or in connection with federal contracts. Here are some thoughts about the new regs and how the new $15 per hour rate may require contractors to devote renewed attention to whether their employees are receiving the required minimum.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently sent around an email soliciting “feedback” from interested parties about the Davis-Bacon Act (“DBA”). The inquiry references a Spring 2021 “Davis-Bacon Initiative (DBI21).” This is a rare opportunity to ask DOL to fix some of the ambiguities or inanities in the law and regulations.
Read MoreStobil appealed a Civilian Board of Contract Appeals decision to the Federal Circuit but could not show it was entitled to all of their wage rate increases were due to the new wage determination.
Read MoreIs a legally correct result always the right outcome? A recent bid protest held that an offeror could be downgraded for lack of experience even though the RFP stated (as it should) that lack of past performance information couldn’t be held against it.
Read MoreWhen Service Contract Act (“SCA”) covered nonexempt employees work at home or an alternate work site, does the employer have to get a new wage determination (“WD”) to cover the new locale? And if that new WD has higher wages must the contractor pay the higher rate? And how is DOL enforcing the SCA for remote workers in this pandemic era? The answers are maybe and very gingerly.
Read MoreThe ASBCA holds that FAR 22.404-12(c) does not require that notice be given to offers that they have the opportunity to escalate labor rates into their bid pricing even when the offers will not receive a price adjustment after a new Wage Determination is incorporated into the contract.
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