If the newly reconstituted Jobs "R" Us Obama administration were serious about putting Americans back to work and containing wasteful spending, it would kill an outrageous union appeasement that grossly inflates federal construction wages.
Suspending the Davis-Bacon Act, which increases wages contractors pay an average of 22 percent, would allow for 163,000 new construction jobs at fair-market rates in 2010 by saving more than $11 billion. That's according to a new analysis by The Heritage Foundation.
For what government pays four workers at an artificially inflated wage it could hire five.
Big Labor rants that eliminating what are purely arbitrary wage scales would lead to "unlivable" wages. Let's put this in perspective.
The market rate for a carpenter in the Philadelphia area is $24.83 per hour. Davis-Bacon inflates that pay to $37.40 -- more than a 50 percent spike. For a Philly electrician, the fair-market rate is $31.55 versus $46.85.
The actual hardship is Davis-Bacon's toll on taxpayers -- not fair wages that should be paid to all skilled laborers.
President Obama could suspend this extortion with one pen stroke by executive order. By law the president has authority to do so during national emergencies. Double-digit unemployment is ample justification.
Under the president's latest agenda, unless it's merely propaganda, withdrawing the Davis-Bacon Act should be Job One.
