Published date: 05/14/2025
Aliecia Taormina, CCEP, MCA has over 20 years of experience in construction (including a role as a Senior Compliance Manager of a Fortune 300 contractor), accumulating extensive prevailing wage and Davis-Bacon knowledge over her career
Question
I am confused about non-union labor work for which we pay $27.00 per hour (time and a half for OT). I reported just the hourly rates and hours. Is this correct? It makes no sense to me to include fringes if the EE does not belong to a Union.
Answer: So let’s talk in detail about this. I need more details to give the correct answer, so instead I’ll make some assumptions, the first being that we’re talking about a federal wage determination:
a.) Fringes don’t immediately mean that only a union employee gets them. If you have an open-shop employee (i.e., someone who is non-union) and they are working in a classification that has fringes, they still need to get paid for them.
b.) Let’s assume you have a laborer; their wage rate is $25.00 an hour, and their fringe rate is $5.00 an hour. This means that no matter what, your employee must get paid a grand total of $30.00 per hour. If you aren’t offering anything that qualifies as a fringe benefit, then that $5.00 an hour is paid “cash in lieu of fringe”. You do not, of course, need to pay OT on that.
Question
To piggyback on my last question, what is the best way to determine the correct classification for a non-union labor EE?
Answer: This is where I insert my standard comment of “I’m not an attorney, so I can’t give you legal advise. However, in my experience, determining which classification an employee should be comes down to what exactly do they do on the project? You’re stating that it’s “laborer” work, but are they pushing a broom? Setting traffic control? Chopping down trees? Are these different type of laborers on your wage determination?
The examples I give would be “general or common laborer”, “traffic control worker” or “landscape laborer”. Or you might have one of the wage determinations that simply state “common laborer” and “skilled laborer”. If that’s the case, then I encourage you to talk to your Prime or your project owner and get direction from them.
Question
Our company employs air balance technicians which falls under 15e06 Air Balance Engineers in the Davis Bacon handbook. Are we required to report certified payroll for our air balancers working on Davis Bacon jobs?
Answer: You are only required to report them if they perform the work to “fix” the problems that they have pointed out. If they are only advising how mechanical contractors can adjust the imbalances in heating and cooling, then they do not do the physical work of a laborer and mechanic.
Question
When a wage determination is added to a modification on a federal contract, does the updated wages apply to just the modified work or the entire contract (remaining work) going forward?
Answer: In my experience, if a change order is issued on a project with a new wage determination, then that covers all work going forward, unless the contract language specifies that it is only for one type of work. Which I’ve personally never seen; doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. To cover your bases, make sure you ask your Prime or project owner in writing.
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