The regulations of the Secretary of Labor provide that projects completed more than 1 year prior to the request for a determination may, but need not, be considered in determining prevailing wage rates. If there has been no similar construction within the area in the past year, wage rates paid on the nearest similar construction may be considered. Separate rates are determined for various types of construction and work connected therewith, such as buildings, bridges, dams, highways, sewers, airports, apartment houses, land-clearing, and excavating.

When the wage rates prevailing in a locality have been determined, the Solicitor issues a formal "Decision of the Secretary," showing the rates for the various classes of laborers and mechanics. Rates shown in the decision are incorporated into the construction contract as the minimum rates to be paid on the project. Only the basic hourly wage rates are used in these decisions. ployer contributions for life insurance, hospitalization, pensions, and other types of health and welfare benefits are not included.

Em

If he deems it necessary, the Solicitor may call for a public hearing and will designate a Hearing Examiner. The regulations require that, after the Hearing Examiner notifies all interested parties of the impending hearing, he is to proceed to the project area and make such investigations and conduct such hearing as may be necessary to make a determination of wage rates for the project. After holding the hearing the Examiner is to prepare a document in which he must (1) state the procedure he has followed, (2) summarize briefly and analyze the evidence and information he has

received, and (3) propose a decision for the Secretary of Labor's consideration. A copy of the Examiner's proposed decision must be mailed to each party of record and to any other person who has expressed an interest in the proceedings. Any interested party may, within 5 days after receipt of the Hearing Examiner's proposed decision, file his comments thereon with the Chief Hearing Examiner for transmission to the Secretary of Labor. The Solicitor then issues the formal decision for the Secretary of Labor.

BACKGROUND ON WAGE RATE DECISIONS

FOR THE MARINE CORPS CAPEHART HOUSING PROJECT

NEAR QUANTICO, VIRGINIA

The Solicitor for the Department of Labor periodically determines prevailing wage rates for all building construction by the Navy Department in Washington, D.C., and vicinity. After the rates are determined, the Solicitor issues one general decision which shows rates for all Navy Department building construction in Washington, D.C., and 10 surrounding counties (Montgomery, Prince Georges, St. Mary's, Charles, and Calvert Counties in Maryland and Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford, and King George Counties in Virginia). The general wage rate decisions are updated periodically. If the Navy Department questions whether the periodically established rates are representative of the rates prevailing in the locality, it may request, and obtain, a specific wage decision for any proposed project.

On March 25, 1960, the Navy Department Bureau of Yards and Docks requested a specific wage decision for a 450-unit Capehart housing project at the Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, Virginia. These housing units were to be one-story, three- and four-bedroom, semidetached dwellings, with no basements.

In its letter of request the Navy Department stated that it appeared from evidence obtained by the Officer in Charge of Construction that wage rates contained in a general decision of the Department of Labor issued on February 8, 1960, were considerably higher than those prevailing in Washington, D.C., and in the area

surrounding the Marine Corps Schools, for construction of a chara ter similar to the planned housing project.

Between the date the Navy Department requested the redetermination, March 25, 1960, and the date the contract was awarded, January 17, 1961, several specific wage rate decisions were issued for the Marine Corps housing project at Quantico. The hourly wage rates, by representative crafts, shown in decisions issued for this project through July 1960 are summarized in the following table. A chronology of events leading to each decision follows the table. The wage rates which have been arrived at through negotiation between the construction trade unions and contractors are referred to in this report as union rates.

C

d.

The rates

See

This decision applied to Washington, D.C., and the 10 surrounding counties.
were at the same level as the union wage rates for commercial building construction.
footnote d.

Some of these rates were at about the same level as the wage rates shown by a Navy Department survey to be prevailing on residential and commercial building construction in the vicinity of Quantico. The other rates were at about the same level as the rates shown by the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Washington, Inc., to be prevailing for residential housing in the Metropolitan Washington area.

The 4-7-60 decision modified some of the rates after a Labor Department survey of residential building construction in the Quantico area. The 4-13-60 decision modified the rates, except for 3 crafts, to agree with rates paid by a contractor who had recently built 535 units of private housing in the same county as the Capehart housing project at Quan

tico.

These rates were at the same level as the union wage rates for commercial building construction in Washington, D.C., and the 10 surrounding counties. Union rates for roofers were increased between 2-8-60 and 4-22-60, rates for 15 other crafts were increased between 4-22-60 and 7-6-60, and rates for 14 crafts increased between 7-6-60 and 1-6-61. These rates are the same as the rates paid to union workers, including a differential rate for traveling from a point in Washington, D.C., to a project in zones 15 to 40 miles

away.