DOL Close to Proposing $15 Wage Floor for Federal Contractors

The Biden administration is readying to implement the president’s executive order requiring federal contractors to pay workers at least $15 an hour, as the U.S. Labor Department sent its proposed rule to the White House for review.

DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, tasked with carrying out President Joe Biden‘s April directive to lift the minimum wage for government contractors to $15, from its current level of $10.95, transmitted the proposal to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Approval from the White House’s regulatory office is generally the final step before federal agency regulations can be released to the public. In the administration’s semiannual regulatory agenda, released this month, the department tentatively scheduled the $15 minimum wage proposal to be published in July.

The agency faces an accelerated deadline to propose and finalize the regulations, given Biden’s executive order stated that all federal agencies must incorporate the minimum pay increase into new contract solicitations by January 2022 and into new contracts by March 2022.

The WHD, which is charged with enforcing the order, is likely to include in its proposal an interpretation of precisely which types of contracts will be subjected to the wage increase.