Advice on Prevailing Wage jobs

southsoundtree

southsoundtree

Been here much more than a while
Location
Olympia, WA
I have a VA Hospital that need a tree assessment and possibly pruning/ removal work.

Its going to be subbed though another company to me, I think.

I just sent off some preliminary questions before the initial contact on site.

Advice, anecdotes, etc appreciated.
 
Just did a prevailing wage job for our local VA hospital a few weeks ago. Removals for an expansion. Put the ground guys in as Laborers, and since their is no applicable category for Bucket Truck operators or similar, put them down as Stump Grinder operators, which is listed. Crazy, but it worked. Huge pay raise for the groundies, not much for the bucket guys.
 
What about chainsaw (sawyer rate) and chippers (machine operator) rates. What rates were those catagories? Does it vary by state or is it federal catagorization?

How do you mean that it worked? Has anybody audited it?
 
While I worked on it, I didn't do the paperwork. ThereforeI don't know if it is by state or fed, no we haven't been audited, and I meant it worked in that we all got Laborer or Stump Grinder Operator pay for that day. We all got 2 pay checks that week, 1 for the days at our normal rate, 1 for the day at the prevailing rate. I can check with the boss if you want more specifics.
 
Southsound,
For me, the easiest part of prevailing wage work is having the $ for paying the payroll. The other things that go with prevailing wage take me a lot of time. You need to start with the state prevailing wage notice that applies to the project. It will list the labor codes and class along with the Basic rate, Fringe rate and Total rate. Then choose the closest labor code for each person.
After you have that figured out, make sure you let your staff/crew know how much they are making in case they get asked by the inspector.
Then in the office you have to do a certified payroll, and may have to do a contractor affidavit when the job closes out. The certified payroll needs to be done for each week you are on the job.
You can ask the company that is going to sub you the job about all those things too, I am sure they will be happy to help.
 
One more thing I remembered, you might have the EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) reports to do also.
Don't be afraid of all the paperwork if the job can pay well enough or you can add enough on to cover the extra hours of paperwork. It is just part of the big game that many contractors are playing with the government. But the gov't is the one that started it.
 
We have done a couple, though we were also a sub, not working directly for the State of WA.

I took guidance from a friend so has performed many prevailing wage jobs for municipalities. We paid worked under the laborer-feller bucket class. You can look up the rate under the WA LNI website by county. I paid truck/trailer rates for the travel time.

There are affidavits and certified payroll forms that need to be filed. Overtime is a weighted average calculation.
 
You have to calculate in what are called 'fringes' as well. This means whatever benefits a union employee would get, divided out over a period of time. Figure an additional $10-13 an hour on top of the prevailing wage. Madness.

Tom
 
Here's a question: if you are an owner operator working on the crew, do you need to fill out the certified payroll for yourself even if your not paying yourself prevai g wage? I'm a dba and although I would pay employees p/w and fill out the paperwork for them, I take a flat salary no matter what.
 
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