Help Us Generate a Comprehensive Outlook for 2024 by Taking the Survey Each year around this time, AGC asks you – our members – to predict what next year will be like for your business. AGC has partnered with Sage to prepare questions that focus on expectations for market performance, hiring, labor market conditions, etc. Please take a moment to complete the survey here. AGC of America will use the survey results to help make the case with elected and appointed officials in support of key member priorities. The more people who complete the survey by Thursday, December 7, the more effective the results will be in supporting our work on your behalf.
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) has issued its long-anticipated final rule addressing the Standard for Determining Joint-Employer Status under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). The final rule rescinds the more narrowly tailored standard adopted by the last Board in a 2020 final rule and reinstitutes a broader standard similar to the one established by the prior Board in its ill-fated 2015 Browning-Ferris Industries decision. The standard is significant, as companies that are joint employers may be held jointly responsible for any unfair labor practices and collective bargaining obligations related to jointly employed workers.
November 6-8 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta
According to the latest Contractor Compensation Quarterly (CCQ) published by PAS, Inc., Open Shop contractors anticipate skilled craft hourly wage increases of 4.45% in 2023 (4.30% excluding zeros). Actual increases for 2022 were 5.02% (including zeros) and 5.10% (excluding zeros). These increases are across the board for all craft, contractor types, sizes, and regions of the country. WorldatWork reports 2023 actual construction increases at 4.4%. Historically, projected numbers are slightly lower than the actual year end figure.
Tuesday, November 14, 2023 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (ET)
The U.S. Department of Labor’s massive final rule “Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations” takes effect on all new contracts awarded on and after October 23, with limited exceptions.
12 Additional Federally Funded Projects Designated
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver speaks at the new Kansas City Current Stadium project on the first day of Construction Inclusion Week 2023
In its latest Settlements Report, the AGC-supported Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC) advises that construction-industry collective bargaining agreements settled from January through September of 2023 provide an average 4.6 percent increase in the first contract year. The CLRC notes that the multi-year settlements are now seeing the full effects of the surge in inflation. Because most unions will have negotiated new rates by the end of 2025, the CLRC projects that the steep growth in increases will slow. Measured by dollar value, the first-year increases during the first part of 2023 was $2.97, a substantial $1.32 jump from 2020. The CLRC projects first-year increases to average $3.40 in 2025. Regionally every region except New England has seen increases and nearly every craft has seen increases, some with notable increases.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a proposal to Define and Delimit the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Associated General Contractors of America recently urged the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division to abandon or at least postpone issuance of this anticipated proposed rulemaking. The DOL last updated these regulations as recently as 2019, going into effect in 2020, which strongly suggests there is no need for urgency in issuing more changes.