Why is it required?

A little history:  the first prevailing wage law governing minimum payments to laborers and mechanics on construction projects was passed in Kansas in 1891. Debate on the federal level began in 1898 and continued in 1927, 1928 and 1930. Rep. Robert Bacon R-N.Y., introduced a prevailing wage bill in 1927, but it did not pass until 1931. The U.S. Senate author was newly elected Sen. James Davis, R-PA., who had previously served as Secretary of Labor for nearly a decade.

The Davis-Bacon Act prevented local wage standards from being undercut on federal construction projects by low bidders that imported cheap labor as a cost-cutting technique. Amended in 1935, it required the payment of not less than the wages found by the Secretary of Labor to be "prevailing for the corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics employed on projects of a character similar to the contract work in the city, town, village or other civil subdivision of the state in which the work is to be performed."

Similar state laws are often referred to as "little" Davis-Bacon Acts. Minnesota's law, patterned after federal and Wisconsin law, was enacted in 1973, after an incident where out-of-state workers, who earned much less than local workers, were hired for a University of Minnesota farm project.

Prevailing wage | Notifications | Commercial | Highway and heavy