Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC office, was quoted in Law360 Employment Authority, in “4 Wage and Hour Regulations to Watch in 2022,” by Daniela Porat. (Read the full version – subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

If 2021 was about unwinding Trump-era regulations, 2022 will see worker-friendly rulemaking at the U.S. Department of Labor, with potential changes to the salary threshold for overtime-exempt workers and a general push for the presumption of employee status, attorneys told Law360. Such predictions hinge in part on whether David Weil, former Wage and Hour Division administrator under President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden's pick to assume the role, is confirmed as head of the agency. …

Here, Law360 explores what might be coming down the wage and hour regulatory pipeline in 2022. …

Modifications to Davis-Bacon Act Regulations

In February, the DOL is expected to release a notice of proposed rulemaking revising regulations that implement the Davis-Bacon Act, which governs wage standards on federally funded public works projects. The department determines the Davis-Bacon prevailing wages, which are the local wage rates and benefits in the jurisdiction of each project.

Acosta said modifying these regulations will be paramount in the wake of the $1.2 trillion hard infrastructure bill Biden signed into law in November. …

Much of the Davis-Bacon Act regulations are "underdeveloped," and more clarity on these informal, "unwritten" standards would be beneficial, said Paul DeCamp, a former administrator for the Wage and Hour Division and a member of management-side firm Epstein Becker Green.

The DOL could, for example, provide more information about how to identify a covered contract outside clear-cut Davis-Bacon projects such as constructing a new building, DeCamp said.

"But when we're talking about, you're redoing the HVAC system, or you're putting in an all new plumbing … there may be areas where it's not entirely clear, at least in the regulations, whether the department would view that work as construction under the Davis-Bacon Act or service under the Service Contract Act or something else," DeCamp said.

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