Federal Contractor Pay of $15 Per Hour Cemented by New DOL Rule

The Biden administration has locked in a regulation to raise minimum pay for federal contractor employees to $15 an hour on new or updated contracts starting Jan. 30.

The U.S. Department of Labor published a final rule Monday to carry out a policy goal President Joe Biden had set in an executive order earlier this year. The rule establishes the contours of how federal agencies will ensure that new or extended contracts are awarded only to companies paying workers a $15 minimum wage, a level that will be annually updated to keep pace with inflation.

In effect, the department updated ...