So, for all of my career I've never done prevailing wage work. One of my best GCs has asked me to bid on a job at an airport. Nothing huge, but it is prevailing wage. Is there a simple way to adapt my unit pricing that works well for me into prevailing wage territory? Any tips or tricks as I venture into new territory? Is the paperwork a pain like I've heard? The job calls out for 120 days working nights from 10p to 5a. Do I need to staff it as such?
You will need to provide certified payrolls for everyone working for the prevailing wage. By the way, is this prevailing wage (usually a state thing) or Davis-Bacon (federal jobs)? The paperwork is a royal PIA. You may not be used to keeping track of time as tightly as the law requires. You may need to create new forms and institute new procedures both in the field and in the office.
The GC, at the time he solicits the bid, is supposed to provide you with the prevailing wage schedule. They hardly ever do. You can go the the US Dept of Labor web site and look it up for yourself. It's broken down by county and often there are multiple divisions within the county. It can literally make a difference which side of the street the job is on. I've heard of one job where the line ran through the job site! Here's what one looks like for my county:
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ELEC0102-023 06/04/2012
Rates Fringes
ELECTRICIAN (Including Low
Voltage Wiring)
Cable Splicer...............$ 53.99 55.0%
Electrician.................$ 48.93 55.5%
Work forty ft. or more above the ground or protective rigging
(does not apply to pole work, or to use of a manlift or
high reach-type lift): 10% per hour additional.
Work with, or the removal of, asbestos materials: 114% times
the journeyman rate.
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The total for each worker is the rate PLUS the fringes. For an electrician this would be $48.93 + (0.55 x $48.93) = $75.84. That's his total hourly rate. You can take credit for the pro-rated hourly value of fringes you already provide like vacation, sick days, personal days, tool allowances, company-paid insurance premiums, or anything else you offer that has monetary value. Whatever is left over goes in his pay check. When you price the labor, remember that whatever over head you usually have is still going to apply. If it costs you $30/hr to put a man on the road, add that to the $75.84, plus anything else you usually tack on. Our experience in our area is that you need to charge upwards of $150/hr to stay ahead of the extra wages and record keeping required. Notice too, that it's going to be much harder to cover a labor oops! with the markup on materials. Guessing wrong on prevailing wage labor hours is a fast track to the job from heck.
If you're the owner or a one-man band, you pay yourself the hourly rate if you're on the job.
Work performed off site isn't covered. If you assemble panels in the shop and ship them to the site, the shop work isn't covered. Unless it's HVAC duct work, then it is (I may be confusing this with NJ prevailing wage).
Keep careful track of what the men are actually doing on site. If they are doing clean up or housekeeping, that may mean a laborer's rate so you might see a cost savings there. Don't try to re-classify a job to a lower type; an electrician pulling cable is still an electrician, not a laborer.
Well, that should give you a few things to think about. If I think of more words of encouragement, I'll pass them along.
