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The Importance of Pro Active Participation in the Legislative Process 

This last month CCMI has been involved in reviewing and commenting on a variety of prevailing wage proposals (regulations as well as legislation) in a variety of States and the Federal government. It is so much more effective to correct an incorrect assumption or a bad piece of regulation while it is in this formative state than after the legislation is passed. 

Let us share with you an example from California. AB 2182 (Hardy) wants to require an increase in prevailing wages every time a union collective bargaining agreement provides an increase (even if that increase is not included in the state wage determination at the time of bid). This creates uncertainty in price, not only for the contractor, but for the awarding agency. Can you imagine a construction project with 50 different trades and an increase in the middle of the project for even just 10 of those trades. The contractors have to get notified and pay the increase and they will certainly want a change order from the awarding agency. The Awarding Agency is basing its budget on the contract price and is now surprised with say a 5% or more increase to the contract price. This is a budget buster for certain.

Another Example is the recent Davis Bacon regulations published October 2023. The DOL proposed over 50 changes to the prior regulations. The written comments submitted by hundreds of contractors, public agencies, and related individuals caused some of those proposed changes to be confirmed, changed or cancelled. Your participation really does make a difference.

UPCOMING SEMINARS AND SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES

Upcoming Training:

May 15^th   Maryland Prevailing Wage Training for Contractors. Montgomery County Maryland 1 p.m. -3 p.m. EST. Click here to register. For more information contact steven.noguera@montgomerycountymd.gov 

May 15^th Hawaii Prevailing Wage Training for Contractors. Hawaii time 10 a.m. – 12 noon. To register or for more information contact reneee@abchawaii.org

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: 

You are correct that holidays determined by various states for prevailing wage purposes seem to be all over the map. For federal Davis Bacon, the applicable holidays are contained in the actual wage determination at the bottom of the section for your particular trade. There are not many of these, but those that apply are contained in the actual wage determination.

Some states list a very specific list of holidays which apply. You can usually find these holiday listed on the State’s prevailing wage website. Search for “prevailing wage + XXnameofstateXX”. It is true that some many states have very different holidays. For Example Hawaii observes a single set of holidays for all trades, but does include some holidays that other states do not recognize such as Prince Kuhio Day on March 26, Many states observe Veterans Day while others do not. 

Some states, like California, observe Holidays by trade. So Carpenters in Northern California observe the Friday before Labor Day as a “floating holiday”, while other trades recognize Cesar Chavez day or Juneteenth. In those situations, a contractor has to look at each trade on the wage determination and select the holiday tab for each trade to retrieve those specific holiday dates. So, it can be a bit of extra work, but once you have those dates on a spread sheet, those typically do not change for that year.