Who Uses Project Labor Agreements?

This is the first comprehensive study of the adoption of project labor agreements on public works. Using data for about 450,000 California public projects (2012–2023), we find that PLAs are adapted to larger projects, more likely to be combined with design-build procurement, more likely to be adopted in wealthier counties with larger economies, more likely to be adopted by larger procurement agencies, are adopted during procyclical upswings, and along with design-build, PLAs are more likely to be adopted in more Democratic-leaning counties. Except for very large projects, PLAs are not combined with leased-back arrangements, which are more likely to be adopted in Republican-leaning counties. The prevalence of PLAs, design-build, and leased-back arrangements rises with project size, while traditional low-bid contracts and job-orders are more likely on smaller jobs. However, PLAs are more commonly found in combination with traditional low-bid contracts and job-orders projects when those projects are unusually large.