Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday that a new rule from the Biden administration could raise wages for construction workers on federal jobs by thousands of dollars each year.
Harris was speaking in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to announce the first proposed rule change to the Davis-Bacon Act since the Reagan administration. If it goes into effect, the proposed rule could raise wages for more than 1 million construction workers.
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Her remarks repeated similar rhetoric voiced by the president rejecting the “trickle down” philosophy of the Reagan years in favor of the “Bidenomics” plan.
“In the Biden-Harris administration, we strongly believe every worker deserves fair wages for their work,” the vice president said. “Today’s announcement is part of a larger strategy. For far too long, our economy has not been working for working people. Trickle-down economics benefited big corporations and the wealthiest Americans, but not workers.”
“Our theory and our agenda around investing in folks like those who are here is working for America’s economy. This is about workers, and it is about the strength of our nation and seeing the connection,” she continued. “I was raised by a mother who taught me as a child that there is dignity in all work, that every worker deserves respect, that every worker deserves a voice, and that every worker deserves to be paid a fair wage. So, President Biden and I, with you, we’re going to keep fighting to build an economy that recognizes the dignity of all work, and all workers, an economy that supports working families, and an economy that allows all people to thrive. That is Bidenomics, and that is the future we are building together with everyone here.”
The Department of Labor’s rule would lower the “prevailing wage” threshold for federal construction jobs to 30%. That threshold had been raised to 50% nearly 40 years ago. Senior administration officials called the move the “most significant” update to prevailing wage standards in 30 years.
The proposed change to the Davis-Bacon standard, which accounts for more than $200 billion in federal contracts, had been widely supported by labor unions, a critical pillar of the Biden coalition. Opponents to the change say that re-lowering the threshold would increase the cost of federal projects because workers would need to be paid higher wages.
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You can watch Harris’s remarks in full below.
