President Biden had the authority to establish a minimum wage for federal contractors that exceeds the federal statutory minimum wage, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled April 30, 2024. In Bradford v. DOL, the Tenth Circuit became the first federal appeals court to rule on a challenge to the federal contractor minimum wage, although appeals are pending in two other cases before the Fifth and Ninth Circuits.
Affirming a federal district court decision, the Tenth Circuit ruled that the federal Procurement Act gave the President the authority to set a higher minimum wage for covered federal contractors. Even though the federal minimum wage was $7.25 per hour, President Biden’s Executive Order 14026 and the Labor Department’s implementing regulations set the federal contractor minimum wage at $15 per hour as of January 30, 2022, with an escalator clause adjusting the wage each year based on the inflation rate. The contractor minimum wage will benefit the government’s procurement goals by improving productivity and work quality, the appeals court stated.
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