[QualityMan]

this is only applicable to federal contract workers, as I understand it.

am I wrong in this interpretation?

[the OlLine Rebel]

Officially, yes.

Unofficially, wrong. Most union shops will force their wages up indexed to the fed wage.

[Bon of Babble]

I don't think so - I know at least in California when draconian minimum laws are passed, it means ALL businesses must pay that wage - one of a zillion reasons businesses flee my home state.

Recently a local city council mandated that grocery stores had to pay "hero pay" to their workers - easy to do when it isn't YOU that has to pay the extra wages - supermarkets run on a 1-2% profit margin:

The war began when the L.A. City Council passed a law mandating that grocery store workers receive a temporary “hero pay” $5-an-hour salary bump for 120 days to compensate them for working during the pandemic. Supermarket mega-corp Kroger balked, and its execs decided to teach L.A. a lesson by closing two of its Ralphs supermarkets (Ralphs is the dominant grocery chain here in SoCal).

David Cole explains it better than I ever could here:

https://www.takimag.com/article/hand-in-hand-to-hell-the-black-jewish-alliance/

[Brown Deer]

So how can biden change the terms of a binding contract?

[Elsie]

No need to ‘interpret’, as that is EXACTLY what was typed.