Legal Definitions - Walsh–Healey Act

The Walsh–Healey Act, also known as the Public Contracts Act, is a federal law enacted in 1936. Its primary purpose is to establish fair labor standards for employees working under contracts with the United States government. Essentially, it sets baseline requirements that companies must meet when they secure contracts to provide goods or services to the federal government.

These requirements include:

• Paying workers at least the prevailing minimum wage for their industry and locality.
• Adhering to an eight-hour workday and a 40-hour workweek, with overtime pay (time-and-a-half) for any hours worked beyond these limits.
• Prohibiting the use of convict labor.
• Setting minimum age requirements for employees: no females under 18 and no males under 16 years old.
• Ensuring that working conditions are safe and sanitary.

Here are a few examples illustrating how the Walsh–Healey Act applies:

• Example 1 (Wage and Hour Compliance): "AeroTech Manufacturing" wins a multi-million dollar contract to produce specialized components for military aircraft. The Walsh–Healey Act requires AeroTech to pay its factory workers and assembly line technicians no less than the prevailing minimum wage for similar manufacturing jobs in their region. Furthermore, if any AeroTech employee works 45 hours in a given week to meet production deadlines for this federal contract, the company must pay them time-and-a-half for those five additional hours, even if their standard company policy for non-federal work might differ.

  This example demonstrates the Act's provisions regarding the payment of prevailing minimum wages and mandatory overtime for employees engaged in federal contract work.

• Example 2 (Labor Standards and Age Restrictions): "GreenScape Services" is awarded a federal contract to maintain the grounds of a national park. During a routine inspection, it is discovered that GreenScape has hired a 17-year-old male to operate heavy landscaping equipment and has also subcontracted a portion of the tree removal work to a company that employs individuals on parole from a state correctional facility. Both situations would constitute violations of the Walsh–Healey Act, which prohibits employing males under 16 (and females under 18) and strictly forbids the use of convict labor for federal contracts.

  This scenario highlights the Act's prohibitions against employing individuals below specific age thresholds and its absolute ban on using convict labor for government contract work.

• Example 3 (Sanitary Working Conditions): "DataSecure Solutions" secures a contract to digitize millions of historical government documents. The work is performed in a large warehouse. Federal auditors visit the site and find that the restrooms are frequently uncleaned, there is no readily accessible potable drinking water for employees, and the ventilation system is inadequate, leading to excessive dust accumulation. These conditions would be considered a violation of the Walsh–Healey Act's requirement for contractors to maintain sanitary working conditions for their employees.

  This example demonstrates the Act's mandate that government contractors must provide and maintain safe and sanitary working environments for all employees involved in the contracted work.