They are established locally, but the federal government calculates their own (as required by the Davis-Bacon Act). Some states may or may not have similar laws of their own, and calculate their state prevailing wage differently than the federal government (in labor-friendly states, it’ll be much higher in general).
At least with respect to the contracts I’m familiar with, the higher of the two (between federal and state wage rates) must be paid. In the case of my state, they’re higher than federal rates 100% of the time. And they’re very fair, it’s great to see folks that work that hard get paid like that.
So basically it’s like federal/state minimum wage, but for government contracts.
They are established locally, but the federal government calculates their own (as required by the Davis-Bacon Act). Some states may or may not have similar laws of their own, and calculate their state prevailing wage differently than the federal government (in labor-friendly states, it’ll be much higher in general).
At least with respect to the contracts I’m familiar with, the higher of the two (between federal and state wage rates) must be paid. In the case of my state, they’re higher than federal rates 100% of the time. And they’re very fair, it’s great to see folks that work that hard get paid like that.
So basically it’s like federal/state minimum wage, but for government contracts.