The ink is still warm from Obama’s big jobs speech to congress and the Davis Bacon opponents are already seizing the opportunity to push for a suspension of the Davis Bacon Act in order to create more (albeit lower paying) jobs as part of any push. One of the studies they cite is this study posted by the Mercatus Institute at George Mason University was worth a look. The study attempted to look at a variety of aspects of ARRA – from job (specifically new job) creation, to worker behavior and quite a few points in betwen. It’s a good study and definitely worth a casual review. The question we have, however, is how this study butresses the anti-DBRA argument? The only key point we saw related to Davis Bacon was that a majority of companies, “thought that they could have hired workers at wages below the Davis-Bacon pevailing wage…” Given that ARRA was passed during the height of the worst downtown in modern history, we think the fact that people would work for lower wages – or any wages at all – is not terribly surprising. What do you think?