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What is the most common error that contractors make?

I asked my staff this question this month and this is what they said. California contractors consistently get the mid project wage increases incorrect. In California, the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) will publish wage increases for some of the trades tied to a specific date. The biggest error that contractors make is they do not calendar this date. (Date changes by the trades you employ) and so frequently this mid project increase is missed. Secondly, the contractor does not go back to the original wage determination to calculate the mid project increase, but instead goes to the current determination to pull the wage rates. Sometimes that might be the correct rate, but it can also be a larger increase than the contractor is obligated to pay.  

A contractor is obligated to pay mid project increases for any wage increases which is tied to the original wage determination. If the project goes on for year or more, sometimes new wage increases are higher than increases tied to the original wage determination.

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: 

As a Public Agency, the contractor is responsible for locating the proper prevailing wage rate for California prevailing wage. Since the wage determination is based on the bid advertisement date, I often encourage agencies to tell a contractor that the wage rates for this project can be found at 2024-2 or 2025-1 depending on what date the bid solicitation was first published. Beyond that, the contractor has the obligation to select the proper wage determination based on the specific work performed by their company/workers.

Now the rules are a little different if you also have federal money in your project. The federal rules require that the awarding agency include a copy of the applicable federal wage determination (www.sam.gov) AND specific federal contract information (29 CFR Part 5.5). Remember that 10 days before the bid date, you need to go back to www.sam.gov to see if there have been any increases to the federal wage determination. If so, then you need to provide a full copy or a direct link to that wage determination to your bidders list. The federal rates are locked in based on the bid date (so long as the project is awarded within 90 days.). These rules about federally funded projects apply to all federally funded projects regardless of which state you might be working in.

CCMI has a book Davis Bacon Handbook for Public Agencies which is in the process of being updated. If you are a public agency and would like a copy of this book when we publish the update later this year, send your response to info@ccmilcp.com. We will provide 1 free copy per agency. If you want more copies or are not a public agency, the book is available for purchase at our website www.ccmilcp.com.