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Apprenticeship Rules Can be Costly: 

Depending on your project jurisdiction and funding, failure to request apprentices can be costly. In California there is a mandatory set of registration and requests for apprentices that need to occur when the total price of a project equals or exceeds $30,000. Penalties can be assessed at $100 per day from the first day worked through the last day worked and EVERY calendar day in between.  

For the Inflation Reduction Act projects allowing for certain tax credits, contractors who do not meet a mandated apprenticeship participation level can be fined $50 for each hour they are deficient. A contractor recently told me they did not want or need to use apprentices and did not understand why that rationale does not excuse them from the fines. Apprentices need to be requested and only then can the contractor qualify for a waiver.

Apprenticeship is a good thing. It trains the next generation of construction workers with good skill sets. Today, there are many different kinds of apprenticeship programs with a variety of models. There are apprenticeship plans run by a union, or open shop programs or run by a trade association. Some programs allow for virtual classroom or correspondence courses and some require in person training. If you are a large enough company, in some instances you can set up your own apprenticeship program for your company (can be problematic in California). Remember as you are training your workers as apprentices, you also get to pay them something less than the Journeyman rate for prevailing wage.

UPCOMING SEMINARS AND SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES

Upcoming Training:

• Oct 10th Best Practices for Prevailing Wage Projects. To register for the California Assoc of Public Cemeteries conference Oct 9-11th contact publiccemeteries@aol.com

• Oct 13-14th What Every Contractor Should Know about Prevailing Wage 6.5 hours on Oct 13th.  Oct 14th Redding, CA It’s All in the Documents. 4 hours hands on workshop over California prevailing wage documents, CPRs, Fringe Benefit Statements, DAS-140 DAS-142 including scenarios to help identify correct practices.  Elks Lodge, Redding. Hosted by 02 Employment . Make your reservation for one or both programs: https://o2employmentservices.com/events/prevailing-wage-training

• October 15th Eureka, CA What Every Contractor Should Know About Prevailing Wage. 6 hours, California and federal prevailing wage. Eureka, Contact the Humboldt Builders Exchange to sign up: 707-672-3382   

If you need more training, Deborah Wilder is the presenter on the LCPtracker Academy Prevailing wage workshops. Go to www.LCPtracker.com and select the education tab.

Want to schedule your own prevailing wage workshop?

We will customize a workshop or webinar for you and your Agency/Account. Contact us at: info@ccmilcp.com 

ANSWER: 

Federal Davis Bacon rates typically lock in rates for the entire life of the project, so there are no mid project increases. However, a number of States do have increases which may be triggered around specific dates and the contractor is required to pay those increases. Some states like California have specific increases by trade tied to specific dates. Other States increase prevailing wages by a certain dollar amount across all trades all at the same time. Be sure you understand the funding that applies to your project and be aware of what your State requires as far as mid project increases.