SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; REFERENCE.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Davis-Bacon Reform Act’’.
(b) REFERENCE.—Whenever in this Act (other than
in section 12) an amendment is expressed in terms of an
amendment to a section or other provision, the reference
shall be considered to be made to a section or other provi-
sion of the Act of March 3, 1931, entitled ‘‘An Act relating
to the rate of wages for laborers and mechanics employed
on public buildings of the United States and the District
of Columbia by contractors and subcontractors, and for
other purposes’’ (40 U.S.C. 276a et seq.) (commonly re-
ferred to as the ‘‘Davis-Bacon Act’’).
SEC. 2. INCREASE IN THRESHOLD AMOUNT.
Subsection (a) of section 1 (40 U.S.C. 276a(a)) is
amended by striking out ‘‘$2,000’’ and inserting in lieu
thereof ‘‘$500,000’’.
SEC. 3. APPROPRIATE CIVIL SUBDIVISION FOR COMPUTA-
TION OF PREVAILING WAGE.
Subsection (a) of section 1 (40 U.S.C. 276(a)) is
amended by striking out ‘‘the city, town, village, or other
civil subdivision of the State, in which the work is to be
performed,’’ and inserting in lieu thereof ‘‘the particular
urban or rural subdivision (of the State) in which the work
is to be performed,’’.
SEC. 4. DETERMINATION OF PREVAILING WAGE.
Subsection (a) of section 1 (40 U.S.C. 276(a)) is
amended by adding at the end thereof the following new
sentence: ‘‘In determining the prevailing wage for a class
of laborers, mechanics, or helpers where more than a sin-
gle wage is being paid to the corresponding class of labor-
ers, mechanics, or helpers, the Secretary shall establish
as the prevailing wage the entire range of wages being
paid to such corresponding class of laborers, mechanics,
or helpers employed on private industry projects of a char-
acter similar to the contract work in the urban or rural
subdivision of the State in which the work is to be per-
formed, or in the District of Columbia if the work is to
be performed there.’’.
SEC. 5. EXCLUSION OF FEDERAL PROJECTS FROM PRE-
VAILING WAGE COMPUTATION.
Subsection (b)(1) of section 1 (40 U.S.C. 276a(b)(1))
is amended by inserting before the semicolon the following:
‘‘, excluding the basic hourly rates of pay of individuals
whose wages are established pursuant to the requirements
of this Act, unless it is determined that there is insuffi-
cient wage data to determine the prevailing wages in the
absence of data from such Federal or federally assisted
projects’’.
SEC. 6. CLASSIFICATION OF HELPERS.
Section 1 (40 U.S.C. 276a) is amended by adding
at the end thereof the following new subsection:
‘‘(c)(1) For the purposes of this Act, helpers of labor-
ers or mechanics shall be considered as a separate class
and prevailing wages for such helpers shall be determined
on the basis of the corresponding class of helpers employed
on private industry projects of a character similar to the
contract work in the urban or rural subdivision of the
State in which the work is to be performed, or in the Dis-
trict of Columbia if the work is to be performed there.
‘‘(2) For purposes of this section, the term ‘helper’
means a semi-skilled worker (rather than a skilled jour-
neyman mechanic) who—
‘‘(A) works under the direction of and assists a
journeyman,
‘‘(B) under the direction and supervision of the
journeyman, performs a variety of duties to assist
the journeyman, such as—
‘‘(i) preparing, carrying, and furnishing
materials, tools, equipment, and supplies and
maintaining them in order,
‘‘(ii) cleaning and preparing work areas,
‘‘(iii) lifting, positioning, and holding mate-
rials or tools, and
‘‘(iv) other related semi-skilled tasks as di-
rected by the journeyman, and
‘‘(C) may use tools of the trade which are
under the direction and supervision of the journey-
man.’’.
SEC. 7. PROHIBITION ON CONTRACT-SPLITTING.
Section 1 (40 U.S.C. 276a) (as amended by section
6) is further amended by adding at the end thereof the
following new subsections:
‘‘(d) Any person entering into a contract under which
wages are to be determined in accordance with this Act
shall not divide any project into contracts of $500,000 or
less if the project would not have been so divided but for
the purpose of avoiding the application of this Act.
‘‘(e) Whenever the Secretary of Labor determines
that a division for such purpose as described in subsection
(d) has occurred, the Secretary may—
‘‘(1) require that the contracts, grants, or other
instruments providing Federal financing or assist-
ance be amended so as to incorporate retroactively
all the provisions which would have been required
under this Act or other applicable prevailing wage
statute, and
‘‘(2) require the contracting or assisting agency,
the recipient of Federal financing or assistance, or
any other entity which awarded the contract or in-
strument providing Federal financing or assistance
in violation of this section, to compensate the con-
tractor, the grantee, or other recipient of Federal as-
sistance, as appropriate, for payment to each af-
fected laborer and mechanic, of an amount equal to
the difference between the rate received and the ap-
plicable prevailing wage rate, with interest on wages
due at the rate specified in section 6621(c) of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986, from the date the
work was performed by such laborers and mechan-
ics.
‘‘(f) The Secretary shall make a determination that
a division for such purpose as described in subsection (d)
has occurred only where the Secretary has notified the
agency or entity in question not later than 180 days after
completion of construction on the project that an inves-
tigation will be conducted concerning an alleged violation
of this subsection.’’.
SEC. 8. TECHNICAL AMENDMENT APPLYING REFORM TO
RELATED ACTS.
The Act (40 U.S.C. 276a et seq.) is amended by add-
ing at the end thereof the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 8. No provision of any law requiring the pay-
ment of prevailing wage rates as determined by the Sec-
retary in accordance with this Act shall apply to contracts
for construction, alteration, or repair valued at $500,000
or less, or in the case of rent supplement assistance or
other assistance for which the instrument of Federal fi-
nancing or assistance does not have an aggregate dollar
amount, where the assisted project is in the amount of
$500,000 or less.’’.
SEC. 9. MATCHING FUNDS.
The Act (40 U.S.C. 276a et seq.) (as amended by
section 8) is further amended by adding at the end thereof
the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 9. In the case of a grant or other instrument
by which the Federal Government provides to or shares
with any State or subdivision thereof funding of a con-
struction, alteration, repair, rehabilitation, reconstruction,
or renovation project, any law requiring the payment of
prevailing wage rates as determined by the Secretary in
accordance with this Act shall apply to that project only
if at least 25 percent of the costs of that project are paid
by the Federal grant or instrument.’’.
SEC. 10. VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION OF SERVICES.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Act (40 U.S.C. 276a et seq.)
(as amended by sections 8 and 9) is further amended by
adding at the end thereof the following new section: