WHAT'S NEW?  

Clarifying Davis Bacon Holiday Pay

More and more federal wage determinations are listing applicable holidays on the wage determination. For many years contractor only paid workers when they actually worked those holidays. However, this has been addressed and clarified by the US Department of Labor in their Field Operations Handbook.

Field Operations Handbook Chapter 15, governing Davis Bacon federal prevailing wage requirements, states:   

(b) If the applicable wage determination for a classification listed specifies paid holiday as a fringe benefit and an employee works any part of a week in which the holiday occurs, the employee must receive the entire holiday pay benefit, unless a different standard is provided in the applicable wage determination. However, if the employee is hired by the contractor after the holiday occurs in a particular week, he or she would not be entitled to the holiday benefit. For example, if New Year’s Day occurs on Tuesday, and the employee is hired on Thursday, the employee would not be entitled to the benefit.

So, if the wage determination lists Thanksgiving as an holiday and your employees worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of that week and did not work on Thanksgiving, you would still have to pay the worker the applicable prevailing wage rate for Thanksgiving. If the employee actually worked on Thanksgiving, the worker would be entitled to double time. Regular pay for working the day and then the holiday pay on top of that.

Prevailing Wage Training: 2-Day Event

Oct 13-14th, Elks Lodge, Redding, CA

This comprehensive 2-day training covers everything you need to know to stay compliant with California and federal prevailing wage laws. Available for in person or virtual attendance. Make your reservation for one or both programs. Hosted by O2 Employment Services.

• Oct 13: What Every Contractor Should Know about Prevailing Wage, 6.5 hours  
• Oct 14: 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.  
• Click here for more detailed information and registration.

More Training Opportunities

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

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

January 13th What’s New in Prevailing Wage For more information or to sign up contact the California Special Districts Association www.csda.net

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: 

Most states and the federal government recognize that many fringe benefits need to be amortized over 2080 hours in a year. This formula is acceptable by nearly every state as well as the US Department of Labor.

Construction is often subject to the economy and the weather. There is no guarantee that a worker is going to work 2080 hours in a year, yet for the purpose of calculating these credit, this formula has been accepted by the US Department of Labor. For California, take a look at the Public Works Manual issued by the Department of Industrial Relations (around page 56). For the US DOL, take a look at the Field Operations Handbook and 29 CFR Part 5.