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The Importance of California Contractor Registration
All contractors by now should have renewed your California Public Works registration with the Department of industrial Relations. That registration runs from July 1 to June 30 each year. The cost is $400 per year. It is now possible to renew for more than one year at a time. For some contractors this is convenient and for others they renew for multiple years and then forget the deadline to reregister. If you have not registered yet, go online and update your registration. There is a small fine if you are previously registered and are reregistering late, but within a 60 day window of the renewal date. If you go beyond that window, then an additional fine of $2000 is assessed by the Department of Industrial Relations.
It is super important that contractors maintain their California Public Works registration at all times, AND any subcontractor or any other construction service which requires the payment of prevailing wages must also be registered. This includes engineering firms which perform or subcontract out surveying work, material testing, trucking, and employment agencies which provide construction workers to a particular job site.
If the registration is not kept current, the Department of Industrial Relations will fine any unregistered contractor a minimum of $2000 and then impose a fine of $100 per day for every day of work performed on the project. Additionally, the prime contractor and the public agency can be fined as well. This certainly is not going to make the prime contractor or the public agency want to do work with a contractor who cannot keep the registration current.
Best Practice for the Contractor: Be proactive with your own contractor registration and those of your subcontractors before work is performed on the project.
Best Practice for Public Agency: Make sure you check contractor registration of your prime contractor and all listed subcontractors before you award the contract. Ask your prime contractor for a list of subcontractors and sub-tier subcontractors before work begins on the project and check the registration status of all subcontractors.
