EXography: Federal workers make up to twice as much others doing same job

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Most carpet-layers in Peoria make $10.27 an hour or less, but the government requires federal contractors to pay at least $22.23 an hour for the same work in the Illinois city.

In Troy, Mich., most painters make $13.05 an hour or less, yet every painting company doing business with the federal government must pay its painters at least $26.60.

Across the country, employees of companies with federal contracts make up to twice what others doing the same work in the region make, dramatically increasing the costs to taxpayers, a Washington Examiner analysis found.

Under the Service Contract Act of 1965, contractors are paid a minimum wage determined to be prevailing in the area by the Labor Department.

But those prevailing wages are often far off the mark, according to the analysis, which compared every SCA "district" with far more authoritative figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The law directs the government to keep hourly rates in line with the regional typical rate to ensure the governments buying power doesnt drive down average wages.

But instead, it often has the opposite effect, creating two tiers of workers with comparable skills: Those making the free-market rate and those who are far better compensated and whose salary comes indirectly from Uncle Sam.

Washington-based bureaucrats rely on professional judgment when calculating wage rates, as the Government Accountability Office put it, to assemble what the Examiner found were more than 132,000 different regularly updated dollar figures, decreeing what workers should make in each of 339 occupations across 390 regions.

The bureaucrats use BLS rates as one metric, but then adjust them for various factors, even as they make assumptions to fill in information gaps.

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EXography: Federal workers make up to twice as much others doing same job