Pay Workers Fairly and Save Money
By JANICE M. NITTOLI
NYT
DESPITE persistent unemployment and stagnant wages, few believe that our cash-strapped government is likely to simply create better-paying jobs. But there is a way for this country to get more from the millions of jobs we already finance with federal dollars, while reducing the cost of entitlement programs.
Our government shops for half a trillion dollars in goods and services each year. Nearly one of every four workers is employed by a company that receives federal contracts. But many government contractors routinely violate minimum-wage and maximum-hour laws. A 2010 study of the 50 largest wage penalties by the Government Accountability Office found that half were against companies that received federal contracts in the 2009 fiscal year. This meant not only that workers received less than their due, but also caused a drain on tax dollars, as they turned to Medicaid and food stamps to make ends meet.
President Obama should mandate, in an executive order, that all federal contractors obey the wage and hour laws already on the books.
Although they are already supposed to obey these laws, companies frequently break them; the penalties are minimal, while enforcement is sporadic. If employers had to certify to the government that they complied and risked losing multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts if they were caught lying, they would be much more likely to follow the rules. Certification would function as a self-enforcement mechanism, and would be more effective than the existing policing system, which relies heavily on understaffed state and federal labor agencies.
(More here.)
NYT
DESPITE persistent unemployment and stagnant wages, few believe that our cash-strapped government is likely to simply create better-paying jobs. But there is a way for this country to get more from the millions of jobs we already finance with federal dollars, while reducing the cost of entitlement programs.
Our government shops for half a trillion dollars in goods and services each year. Nearly one of every four workers is employed by a company that receives federal contracts. But many government contractors routinely violate minimum-wage and maximum-hour laws. A 2010 study of the 50 largest wage penalties by the Government Accountability Office found that half were against companies that received federal contracts in the 2009 fiscal year. This meant not only that workers received less than their due, but also caused a drain on tax dollars, as they turned to Medicaid and food stamps to make ends meet.
President Obama should mandate, in an executive order, that all federal contractors obey the wage and hour laws already on the books.
Although they are already supposed to obey these laws, companies frequently break them; the penalties are minimal, while enforcement is sporadic. If employers had to certify to the government that they complied and risked losing multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts if they were caught lying, they would be much more likely to follow the rules. Certification would function as a self-enforcement mechanism, and would be more effective than the existing policing system, which relies heavily on understaffed state and federal labor agencies.
(More here.)
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