BIRMINGHAM, AL — U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh announced the department’s final rule implementing Executive Order 14026 to increase the hourly minimum wage for federal contract employees to $15 per hour.

The order goes into effect Jan. 30, 2022.

The secretary joined Rep. Terri Sewell and Mayor Randall Woodfin at Kelly Ingram Park to meet with area workers who talked about how the new rule will help their communities. These workers included:

• Jamie Brown, a customer service representative at Maximus, an IT company in Hattiesburg, Miss.
• Carolyn Morris, a janitor at Maxwell Air Force base in Montgomery, Ala., for more than 30 years and a United Steelworkers Local 9504 member.
• Ann Jones, a floor technician at Fort Benning, Ga., and a Laborers’ International Union of North America member.

“Being in Birmingham to announce this transformative action gave me a great opportunity to meet a community of workers who have been a driving force in the fight to raise the minimum wage,” said Secretary Walsh.

“Now, the federal government is doing its part to ensure that workers on federal contracts are earning a decent wage for the invaluable services they provide to keep our government running.”