Citing privacy concerns, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a new rule abolishing the requirement that federal construction contractors and subcontractors include workers’ home addresses and full social security numbers on weekly certified payroll statements that are submitted to the contracting federal agency under the Davis-Bacon and Copeland Anti-Kickback Acts. Under the new rule published in the Federal Register on December 19, only a partial identifier is required, such as the last four digits of the individual’s social security number.

Many labor organizations opposed the new rule, fearing that omitting a worker’s complete identification information from weekly payroll statements could result in the misclassification of workers, underpayment of wages, fringe benefit abuses, and illegal kickbacks on federal construction projects.