Prevailing Wage Directory Needs Update: GAO How much should a contractor pay a customer service representative, a call center representative or a telemarketer? The Labor Department’s massive directory of occupations won’t tell you. The Service Contract Act requires Labor to determine prevailing local wages for service employees working on federal contracts, but the Government Accountability Office found the wage directory has not been revised since 1993, although there have been piecemeal updates. GAO said agencies, contractors and their employees question many of the department’s determinations of prevailing wages. “Contractors and other stakeholders contend that the process that analysts follow when determining a wage is not transparent and that determinations do not necessarily reflect local wage conditions,” the report said. As a result, analysts have to field thousands of questions about individual wage determinations, distracting them from their main duties. GAO said the department’s Wage and Hour Division has been working on a new edition of the directory since 2002. An official of the division told auditors the revision must proceed cautiously because of the “significant cost implications” in setting prevailing wages. GAO recommended that the department update its directory regularly and explain how it sets wages. The report also recommends that the Wage and Hour Division analyze data about violations of the prevailing wage law to look for patterns that would help in enforcement. The Labor Department agreed with the findings. The report is GAO-06-27.