Profit is the difference between the wages that would have been required excavating by hand, and the smaller amount of wages required using the machine.

The agreement also requires employers to pay the minimum wage required by local law or the prevailing industry wage, whichever is higher.

Pay employees at least the minimum wage required by local law or the local prevailing industry wage, whichever is higher.

Mr. Bering said those companies were tied to organized-crime figures who helped them obtain collective-bargaining deals that called for lower wages and benefits than required by Local 1181.

Where the prevailing wage required by federal law is disputed or under administrative review, a worker's claim that the employer failed to pay the prevailing wage may not arise until the worker has returned home.

Dozens of studies have imputed a value to life from data on the extra wages required to lure workers to perform dangerous jobs.

In addition, an employer is not permitted to pay a wage that is lower than a wage required under any other applicable Federal, State or local law.

The indictment also said the defendants cheated their employees, mainly immigrants from Poland and El Salvador, of $1 million by not paying them the wages required.

Mr. Spota said the workers were cheated out of their full wages by contractors who paid them far below the prevailing hourly wage required by law for construction projects for schools, governments or other public agencies.

General Carns never paid Mr. Runas the wage required by the policy and on occasion permitted him to work outside the home in violation of labor and immigration laws, the general acknowledged.