After two years of contractor litigation, the Labor Department tells a Texas court it will not rewrite the 2023 prevailing wage update
The U.S. Department of Labor will keep most of the 2023 update to the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts in place, The Daily Reporter reported Aug. 27, closing a two-year review of a PLA order that contractor groups had hoped would gut the rule.
The decision came in a procedural filing in the Eastern District of Texas, where Associated Builders and Contractors and its Southeast Texas chapter sued in November 2023 to strike the rule down. The Daily Reporter said the department, now under acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, concluded its review of whether to revise or rescind the challenged provisions and will not pursue new rulemaking.
The 2023 rule was the first comprehensive update to Davis-Bacon regulations in about 40 years. It restored the pre-1983 method for calculating prevailing wages, set a schedule for updating stale wage rates, and strengthened enforcement and recordkeeping on federally funded construction projects. The Davis-Bacon Act requires contractors on those projects to pay locally prevailing wages and benefits.
The department will let three provisions go. Those cover prevailing wage requirements for certain offsite work such as truck drivers, the rule’s distinction between material suppliers and contractors, and its “operation of law” clause. A federal court in the Northern District of Texas blocked those same three provisions in a nationwide injunction in June 2024, and the Labor Department said the rest of the rule remained in effect.
The administration also left in place the 2022 executive order requiring project labor agreements on federal construction projects worth $35 million or more, The Daily Reporter reported. Contractor associations have challenged that order in court and through bid protests.
The Signatory Wall and Ceiling Contractors Alliance, which supported the 2023 rule, said the decision followed sustained advocacy urging the administration to preserve and defend it. With the review complete, the department and ABC have asked the court to lift its stay and rule on the remaining claims.
Why it matters for PLAs: The federal PLA executive order and the Davis-Bacon update are the two main federal standards that set the floor for wages and workforce terms on large public projects. Both survived a change in administration and two years of contractor pressure. That gives states and public owners a stable federal baseline to build on when they adopt their own PLA and prevailing wage policies.
