§ 5.2 Definitions.

(a) The term Secretary includes the Secretary of Labor, the Deputy Under Secretary for Employment Standards, and their authorized representatives.

(b) The term Administrator means the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor, or authorized representative.

(c) The term Federal agency means the agency or instrumentality of the United States which enters into the contract or provides assistance through loan, grant, loan guarantee or insurance, or otherwise, to the project subject to a statute listed in § 5.1.

(d) The term Agency Head means the principal official of the Federal agency and includes those persons duly authorized to act in the behalf of the Agency Head.

(e) The term Contracting Officer means the individual, a duly appointed successor, or authorized representative who is designated and authorized to enter into contracts on behalf of the Federal agency.

(f) The term labor standards as used in this part means the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act, the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (other than those relating to safety and health), the Copeland Act, and the prevailing wage provisions of the other statutes listed in § 5.1, and the regulations in parts 1 and 3 of this subtitle and this part.

(g) The term United States or the District of Columbia means the United States, the District of Columbia, and all executive departments, independent establishments, administrative agencies, and instrumentalities of the United States and of the District of Columbia, including corporations, all or substantially all of the stock of which is beneficially owned by the United States, by the foregoing departments, establishments, agencies, instrumentalities, and including nonappropriated fund instrumentalities.

(h) The term contract means any prime contract which is subject wholly or in part to the labor standards provisions of any of the acts listed in § 5.1 and any subcontract of any tier thereunder, let under the prime contract. A State or local Government is not regarded as a contractor under statutes providing loans, grants, or other Federal assistance in situations where construction is performed by its own employees. However, under statutes requiring payment of prevailing wages to all laborers and mechanics employed on the assisted project, such as the U.S. Housing Act of 1937, State and local recipients of Federal-aid must pay these employees according to Davis-Bacon labor standards.

(i) The terms building or work generally include construction activity as distinguished from manufacturing, furnishing of materials, or servicing and maintenance work. The terms include without limitation, buildings, structures, and improvements of all types, such as bridges, dams, plants, highways, parkways, streets, subways, tunnels, sewers, mains, power lines, pumping stations, heavy generators, railways, airports, terminals, docks, piers, wharves, ways, lighthouses, buoys, jetties, breakwaters, levees, canals, dredging, shoring, rehabilitation and reactivation of plants, scaffolding, drilling, blasting, excavating, clearing, and landscaping. The manufacture or furnishing of materials, articles, supplies or equipment (whether or not a Federal or State agency acquires title to such materials, articles, supplies, or equipment during the course of the manufacture or furnishing, or owns the materials from which they are manufactured or furnished) is not a building or work within the meaning of the regulations in this part unless conducted in connection with and at the site of such a building or work as is described in the foregoing sentence, or under the United States Housing Act of 1937 and the Housing Act of 1949 in the construction or development of the project.

(j) The terms construction, prosecution, completion, or repair mean the following:

(1) All types of work done on a particular building or work at the site thereof, including work at a facility which is deemed a part of the site of the work within the meaning of (paragraph (l) of this section by laborers and mechanics employed by a construction contractor or construction subcontractor (or, under the United States Housing Act of 1937; the Housing Act of 1949; and the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996, all work done in the construction or development of the project), including without limitation—

(i) Altering, remodeling, installation (where appropriate) on the site of the work of items fabricated off-site;

(ii) Painting and decorating;

(iii) Manufacturing or furnishing of materials, articles, supplies or equipment on the site of the building or work (or, under the United States Housing Act of 1937; the Housing Act of 1949; and the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 in the construction or development of the project);

(iv)

(A) Transportation between the site of the work within the meaning of paragraph (l)(1) of this section and a facility which is dedicated to the construction of the building or work and deemed a part of the site of the work within the meaning of paragraph (l)(2) of this section; and

(B) Transportation of portion(s) of the building or work between a site where a significant portion of such building or work is constructed, which is a part of the site of the work within the meaning of paragraph (l)(1) of this section, and the physical place or places where the building or work will remain.

(2) Except for laborers and mechanics employed in the construction or development of the project under the United States Housing Act of 1937; the Housing Act of 1949; and the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996, and except as provided in paragraph (j)(1)(iv)(A) of this section, the transportation of materials or supplies to or from the site of the work by employees of the construction contractor or a construction subcontractor is not “construction, prosecution, completion, or repair” (see Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO v. United States Department of Labor Wage Appeals Board (Midway Excavators, Inc.), 932 F.2d 985 (D.C. Cir. 1991)).

(k) The term public building or public work includes building or work, the construction, prosecution, completion, or repair of which, as defined above, is carried on directly by authority of or with funds of a Federal agency to serve the interest of the general public regardless of whether title thereof is in a Federal agency.

(l) The term site of the work is defined as follows:

(1) The site of the work is the physical place or places where the building or work called for in the contract will remain; and any other site where a significant portion of the building or work is constructed, provided that such site is established specifically for the performance of the contract or project;

(2) Except as provided in paragraph (l)(3) of this section, job headquarters, tool yards, batch plants, borrow pits, etc., are part of the site of the work, provided they are dedicated exclusively, or nearly so, to performance of the contract or project, and provided they are adjacent or virtually adjacent to the site of the work as defined in paragraph (l)(1) of this section;

(3) Not included in the site of the work are permanent home offices, branch plant establishments, fabrication plants, tool yards, etc., of a contractor or subcontractor whose location and continuance in operation are determined wholly without regard to a particular Federal or federally assisted contract or project. In addition, fabrication plants, batch plants, borrow pits, job headquarters, tool yards, etc., of a commercial or material supplier, which are established by a supplier of materials for the project before opening of bids and not on the site of the work as stated in paragraph (l)(1) of this section, are not included in the site of the work. Such permanent, previously established facilities are not part of the site of the work, even where the operations for a period of time may be dedicated exclusively, or nearly so, to the performance of a contract.

(m) The term laborer or mechanic includes at least those workers whose duties are manual or physical in nature (including those workers who use tools or who are performing the work of a trade), as distinguished from mental or managerial. The term laborer or mechanic includes apprentices, trainees, helpers, and, in the case of contracts subject to the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act, watchmen or guards. The term does not apply to workers whose duties are primarily administrative, executive, or clerical, rather than manual. Persons employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity as defined in part 541 of this title are not deemed to be laborers or mechanics. Working foremen who devote more than 20 percent of their time during a workweek to mechanic or laborer duties, and who do not meet the criteria of part 541, are laborers and mechanics for the time so spent.

(n) The terms apprentice, trainee, and helper are defined as follows:

(1) Apprentice means

(i) a person employed and individually registered in a bona fide apprenticeship program registered with the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Apprenticeship Training, Employer and Labor Services, or with a State Apprenticeship Agency recognized by the Bureau, or

(ii) a person in the first 90 days of probationary employment as an apprentice in such an apprenticeship program, who is not individually registered in the program, but who has been certified by the Office of Apprenticeship Training, Employer and Labor Services or a State Apprenticeship Agency (where appropriate) to be eligible for probationary employment as an apprentice;

(2) Trainee means a person registered and receiving on-the-job training in a construction occupation under a program which has been approved in advance by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, as meeting its standards for on-the-job training programs and which has been so certified by that Administration.

(3) These provisions do not apply to apprentices and trainees employed on projects subject to 23 U.S.C. 113 who are enrolled in programs which have been certified by the Secretary of Transportation in accordance with 23 U.S.C. 113(c).

(4) A distinct classification of “helper” will be issued in wage determinations applicable to work performed on construction projects covered by the labor standards provisions of the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts only where:

(i) The duties of the helper are clearly defined and distinct from those of any other classification on the wage determination;

(ii) The use of such helpers is an established prevailing practice in the area; and

(iii) The helper is not employed as a trainee in an informal training program. A “helper” classification will be added to wage determinations pursuant to § 5.5(a)(1)(ii)(A) only where, in addition, the work to be performed by the helper is not performed by a classification in the wage determination.

(o) Every person performing the duties of a laborer or mechanic in the construction, prosecution, completion, or repair of a public building or public work, or building or work financed in whole or in part by loans, grants, or guarantees from the United States is employed regardless of any contractual relationship alleged to exist between the contractor and such person.

(p) The term wages means the basic hourly rate of pay; any contribution irrevocably made by a contractor or subcontractor to a trustee or to a third person pursuant to a bona fide fringe benefit fund, plan, or program; and the rate of costs to the contractor or subcontractor which may be reasonably anticipated in providing bona fide fringe benefits to laborers and mechanics pursuant to an enforceable commitment to carry out a financially responsible plan of program, which was communicated in writing to the laborers and mechanics affected. The fringe benefits enumerated in the Davis-Bacon Act include medical or hospital care, pensions on retirement or death, compensation for injuries or illness resulting from occupational activity, or insurance to provide any of the foregoing; unemployment benefits; life insurance, disability insurance, sickness insurance, or accident insurance; vacation or holiday pay; defraying costs of apprenticeship or other similar programs; or other bona fide fringe benefits. Fringe benefits do not include benefits required by other Federal, State, or local law.

(q) The term wage determination includes the original decision and any subsequent decisions modifying, superseding, correcting, or otherwise changing the provisions of the original decision. The application of the wage determination shall be in accordance with the provisions of § 1.6 of this title.

[48 FR 19541, Apr. 29, 1983, as amended at 48 FR 50313, Nov. 1, 1983; 55 FR 50149, Dec. 4, 1990; 57 FR 19206, May 4, 1992; 65 FR 69693, Nov. 20, 2000; 65 FR 80278, Dec. 20, 2000; 82 FR 2225, Jan. 9, 2017]