Dive Brief:

• The Associated Builders and Contractors issued a press release criticizing President Obama's new executive order — which he signed on Labor Day — requiring federal contractors to offer employees up to seven days of paid sick leave a year. 
• ABC Vice President of Government Affairs Geoff Burr said the rule has significant implications for the construction industry because "it contradicts the U.S. Department of Labor's long-established policy of crediting sick leave as a fringe benefit for employees performing work on contracts subject to the Davis-Bacon Act." He added, "This will result in additional compliance burdens for contractors who contract with the federal government."
• The Department of Labor now has until September of 2016 to issue final regulations for the rule. It will be incorporated into any new contract starting in 2017. In the release, the ABC said it will actively participate in the next steps of the regulatory process.

Dive Insight:

The White House said the executive order would affect about 30,000 people. It follows several measures in the administration's effort to expand access to paid leave. 

According to the ABC, Obama has issued at least 12 executive orders related to government contracting — with 16 new regulations coming from those orders — since taking office. The association said the most recent proposal is just one in a string of rules "targeting federal contractors that the federal contracting community expects will disrupt federal contracting, increase costs and raise a number of compliance concerns."

The paid sick leave order isn't the only recent federal action opposed by some builders. Earlier this week, the ABC — along with the Associated General Contractors, National Association of Home Builders, and a coalition of businesses — submitted a letter opposing the White House's proposed overtime regulation changes to the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.

The proposed new rule would raise the salary threshold for executive, administrative and professional exemptions from $455 per week, or $23,660 per year, to $970 per week, or $50,440 per year. For highly compensated workers, the threshold would be raised to $122,148 per year, up from $100,000.

Economists from the National Association of Home Builders have said the proposed new rules would affect at least 116,000 supervisors in the construction sector nationwide.