Prevailing Wage Underpayments

One of the ways that contractors and subcontractors on public works projects make it look like they are paying prevailing wages, when in fact they're not, is to report fewer workers and/or fewer hours on weekly certified payrolls. The payroll reports (required on all federally funded public works construction projects) reflect the correct prevailing wage rate for the classification used, but do not reflect all of the hours worked. Unreported hours and workers is a difficult problem to enforce. It requires that the public agency have sufficient field staff to monitor what workers are present and for how long. There are a number of union sponsored prevailing wage monitoring organizations such as REBOUND that often provide resources in monitoring and investigating prevailing wage violations.

Many of the contractors and subcontractors who do not pay prevailing wages have not actually been debarred by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. If you suspect that prevailing wages are not being paid or you have received a complaint about wages, it is best to immediately contact the Department of Labor and Industries who will assign an investigator to help.

If the project is federally funded, make sure you are collecting the weekly certified payrolls from the contractor and all subcontractors and that you are interviewing a sufficient number of workers on-site each week about their wages. You should take this interview information and compare it with the information on the payrolls. There are standard interview and payroll forms that should be used.

Please contact me if you'd like assistance in investigating prevailing wage underpayments or to discuss strategy for how to approach prevailing wage issues.