Prevailing wage = Wage + Bennies?

[SouthNJ]

I was asked to quote a job with prevailing wages for a certain county in south jersey. The cost for a journeyman is Wage 42.36 + Benefits 26.21 = Total 68.57. The question I have is do I base my prevailing hourly wage on only his wage of 42.36? If thats the case I am most likely going to charge around 85.00 per hour for him, or do I use the 68.57 which I would think puts the hourly figure over 100 per hour. I am a non union contractor so I am not sure what to do. I wanna pay the correct amount to the guy and I dont want to get burned with my hourly rate. Any help would be great and maybe a website to recommend. Thanks.

[emahler]

to the best of my knowledge, and someone might be a little more informative...you have to pay the total amount (including benes)

if you offer health benefits, but they are part of an approved program through the state, you can not deduct what you pay from the prevailing wage.

if you have a helper on site, who is not in a state approved apprenticeship program, you have to pay them the journeyman's rate, including the benes...

so basically, if you are a typical small non-union EC, you will have to pay everyone you put on site $68.57/hr...plus any benefits that you would normally pay them...if you have a helper who normally gets $15/hr, you will have to pay him $68.75 for any hour he is on this job...

hopefully this helps

[Ken9876]

Is this job for a County or other govermnet agency? If so you'll need to be registered as a public works contractor with the state.
http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/wagehour/wagehour_index.html

[SouthNJ]

It is a contract for installing a surveillance system in a maintenance shop for the state. Don't you only have to register only if your doing public work for the state or county? I dont think this falls into that.

[mkgrady]

so basically, if you are a typical small non-union EC, you will have to pay everyone you put on site $68.57/hr...plus any benefits that you would normally pay them...if you have a helper who normally gets $15/hr, you will have to pay him $68.75 for any hour he is on this job...hopefully this helpsYou take the wage and the bennies from the wage decision and pay that total amount to the worker. None of their normal bennies have to be added. That means if you normally pay vac., sick, holidays. health, etc., you can stop paying these while the worker is making the rate. You can still pay all your normal bennies but this obviously makes you less competitive on you bid

[emahler]

You take the wage and the bennies from the wage decision and pay that total amount to the worker. None of their normal bennies have to be added. That means if you normally pay vac., sick, holidays. health, etc., you can stop paying these while the worker is making the rate. You can still pay all your normal bennies but this obviously makes you less competitive on you bid

this is true, but if it's a short job, how will canceling their health for a month affect them in the long run?

[captaincrab55]

SouthNJ, Remember that there may be some Hefty Fines involved for even minor infractions involving payroll...

[mkgrady]

this is true, but if it's a short job, how will canceling their health for a month affect them in the long run?

You ask the employee if he wants a deduction taken out of his pay to pay for the insurance and the health insurance coverage continues.

[emahler]

You ask the employee if he wants a deduction taken out of his pay to pay for the insurance and the health insurance coverage continues.

i can live with that...i'm not busting your chops, just trying to get all the information out there for everyone:)

[captaincrab55]

You take the wage and the bennies from the wage decision and pay that total amount to the worker. None of their normal bennies have to be added. That means if you normally pay vac., sick, holidays. health, etc., you can stop paying these while the worker is making the rate. You can still pay all your normal bennies but this obviously makes you less competitive on you bid
This may vary from State to State.. This appears to be just the opposite in Maryland.. Your best advice may well be from the State your working in. All that should be available in the Pre-Bid meeting...

[Rewire]

If you are looking to bid prevailing wage jobs then you may want to join the ABC or IEC both have approved apprenteship programs and can help with navigating the prevailing wage maze.

[101010]

I quess a union apprenticeship would be state approved right? When you are on a prevailing wage job, what do you charge your client if the rate is almost 70 dollars?

[infinity]

If you have a lot of time here's some info on the NJ Prevailing Wage Act:

http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/wagehour/lawregs/prevailing_wage_law.html

[tryinghard]

Here in California a apprenticeships are state mandated by the Labor Commissioner meaning the curriculum and the hours are exactly the same, so you can sign a union agreement or use someone like ABC for your apprentices.

Most prevailing wage work requires certified payroll each week to be submitted with your billing they do this to qualify the wages are in fact being paid. If you get the job send a practice certified payroll document (from the general conditions of the contract docs) to work out any bugs, the General, Client, all involved will appreciate this because this will help billings go smoothly.

The union contractor actually have an advantage over the non-union in that they pay the wage and their burdens are equated from the gross wage the employee receives, most of their benies are tax sheltered. A non-union company usually does not have any benies set up as an hour bank or some shelter and they do have to pay these so they usually pay them to the employee and therefore their burdens (taxes) are greater

For estimating bid the base wage plus total wage benefits multiplied by your burdens (taxes, insurances - the stuff you have to match on your employee's taxes and maybe some additional management for payroll/direct labor burdens that sometimes are accounted for as OH). Your burden multiplier - not overhead - should be around 75% +/- for your journeymen. If your area is like California you'll be wasting your time to bid without apprentice wages because you should be high, if you not and you get listed GET BUSY and good luck! You should bid an upper level apprentice wage, the benies are slightly less but your burden multiplier should be 80% +/-.
Using journeymen and apprentice wages you simply need to bid the mixture or their time like 60% journeyman and 40% apprentice, so if your total bid hours are 10,000 then 6,000 is at journeymen wage and 4,000 at apprentice wage the two combined need to be as close to reality as possible but do cover yourself here. If you look at your total bid with 100% journeymen wages compared to a crew mix you'll see a substantial difference.

Remember a cliché: mess UP don't fall down, if your not sure about the market hold the line and you will use more overhead than normal. Always get your bid results from all your contractors after bid opening, it's public knowledge and it will help you decide your markets.

[bradleyelectric]

I quess a union apprenticeship would be state approved right? When you are on a prevailing wage job, what do you charge your client if the rate is almost 70 dollars?


almost $107.57/HR probably. Depends on what you are going to do with his normal benifit package. Davis Bacon act is only for jobs over $500K here. Your situation may vary. A $2K job to me may be more than a $500K job overall though.

[bradleyelectric]

A non-union company usually does not have any benies set up as an hour bank or some shelter and they do have to pay these so they usually pay them to the employee and therefore their burdens (taxes) are greater

If your going to get involved in these type of projects talk to a benefit specialist. There are retirement accounts that can be set up as benefits to the employees that allow you to put the benefit package in the employee retirement account. This does 2 things for you. 1. Makes it pretax money. 2. You don't have to make the deposit till the end of the month. Take none of what I say as gospel. I'm neither God, an accountant, nor a benefit specialist. I've been to a holiday spa express though.