U.S. Department of Labor Blog
Recently, the Labor Department announced a final rule that increases the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15/hour, which is great news for hundreds of thousands of workers and their families.
Starting Jan. 30, 2022, the rule will:
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Increase the hourly minimum wage for workers on federal contracts to $15.
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Index the minimum wage for federal contractors to inflation. In other words, the raise will be adjusted to keep up with cost-of-living increases.
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Eliminate the tipped minimum wage for federal contract employees by 2024.
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Ensure a $15 minimum wage for workers with disabilities performing work on or in connection with covered contracts.
Who benefits from this rule? More than 300,000 federal contract workers will get a raise of about $5,228 on average. More than half (54%) are women. About 1 in 4 (25%) are workers of color. Roughly one-third of affected workers are in service occupations, which have been hard hit by the pandemic. These are workers who build and repair our roads, keep our national parks clean, care for our veterans and provide other essential services every day. So this rule will help families, improve public services and promote equity.
Check out my video below, or visit our website to learn more.
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Janelle Jones is the chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor.