Human capital studies do not usually consider whether an individual is paid an hourly wage or a salary. The authors of this paper develop a conceptual framework that explains why some workers are paid salaries and predicts that salaried workers will invest more in human capital than will hourly...

The Service Contract Act of 1965 is one of three major laws requiring that "prevailing wages" be paid by private employers with federal contracts. This paper develops a preliminary cost-benefit framework for evaluating that Act. On the benefit side, the authors identify and analyze eight...

The intensified controversy in recent years over the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires the payment of prevailing wages on federally funded construction projects, has resulted in several new studies of the effects of that act. This invited paper reviews the evidence presented in these recent...