Prevailing Wage Discussion

RCAW Leaders:

New prevailing wage legislation (HB 1072) will affect roofing contractors doing public projects. The stated purpose of this law is to discourage repeat and willful violations of the prevailing wage law. This legislation will be discussed at a meeting at 10 am on Wednesday 1/09.

The legislation both gives a little and takes more from contractors. First, it gives an employer a break on a first time inadvertent violation,
but then it makes prevailing wage errors more serious and costly.

The legislation adds a new definition to the state’s prevailing wage law, “An ‘inadvertent filing or reporting error’ is a mistake that  occurs only once and is made notwithstanding the use of due care by  the contractor or employer.”

It also includes a new definition:  "”Unpaid prevailing wages” or ‘unpaid wages’ means the employer fails to pay all compensation owed for any workweek by the regularly established payday for the period in which the workweek ends. Every employer must pay all wages, other than fringe benefits, owing to its employees not less than twice a month."

The legislation goes on to clarify what an “‘inadvertent filing or reporting error” is.
•           It can happen once – this is a “one-time” violation break.
•           The employer must prove the error was inadvertent.
•           The Department will decide if the error was inadvertent or not and consider the fact of whether the employer attended to Department’s prevailing wage training established by the Legislature in 2018, regardless of the exemption for contractors that have had a contractor registration for 3 or more years or have completed 3 or more public works projects.

The Department may waive the penalty for an inadvertent error.

The minimum penalty for a prevailing wage violation is increased from $1,000 to $5,000.

Adds a new option for a contractor to use once every 5 years where a prevailing wage complaint has been filed against a contractor to allow the contractor to voluntarily pay the prevailing wages claimed and also pay a minimum penalty of $1,000 or 20% of the wages owed, whichever is greater.

The Legislation goes on to impose the highest interest rate allowed by state law on any unpaid prevailing wages owed by an employer.

The legislation goes on to extend from 30 days to 120 days the time period an “interested party” (including unions and competitors) can file a prevailing wage complaint against the employer.

RCAW needs to determine its issues and position on this HB 1072 and advise IBA ASAP as there is a meeting to discuss this legislation on 1/09 at 10 am.

Gary Smith and Jim King
IBA View the complete announcement here: http://rcaw.com/announcements.php?id=13