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Davis-Bacon Act Requires Weekly Pay to Workers | Mike Purdy's Public Contracting Blog

2010-07-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

The federal Davis-Bacon Act, adopted by Congress in 1931, is the foundational law requiring payment of federal prevailing wage rates on federally funded public works construction projects.

Weekly Pay Required: One of the provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act that many public agencies, contractors, and subcontractors are not aware of is that it requires that workers be paid "at least once a week."

Cash Flow Problems for Contractors: The weekly payment provision frequently causes conflicts, especially for smaller contractors and subcontractors who may not have the cash flow available to pay their workers on a weekly basis. Nevertheless, contractors and subcontractors working on federally funded projects must comply with this provision.

Contracting Strategies: Contractors bidding on projects subject to federal prevailing wages must factor weekly payment to workers into their bid. Sometimes a contractor may agree to help a subcontractor with cash flow by paying the subcontractor on a weekly basis in exchange for a discount of the subcontract amount.

Monitoring by Public Agencies: Public agencies are required to monitor weekly payrolls submitted by the contractor and subcontractors on federally funded construction projects, and should specifically check payrolls submitted to ensure workers are being paid weekly.

Applicability of Federal Prevailing Wages: Read my earlier blog entry.

Copyright 2010 by Michael E. Purdy Associates - http://www.mpurdy.com

Points North Announces New Certified Payroll Reporting Products

2010-06-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

Points North is pleased to announce two new product offerings for our Certified Payroll Reporting solution. The new Certified Payroll Reporting Basic and Premier Editions are secure online applications that allow government contracted companies to:

Access their data from any computer with an Internet connection
Streamline the entry of project, employee and work class code information
Import their time and payroll data
Quickly generate the WH-347, Compliance Statement and No Work Report
Store reports online for easy retrieval

Points North is a Minnesota-based software firm that is an industry leader in data integration services. Our products provide integration between HR, Payroll and Time & Labor systems, enabling companies across North America to automate data and work flow processes. Certified Payroll Reporting is a core product of Points North. To learn more, visit www.certifiedpayrollreporting.com.

Points North Partners with Paychex to Provide Certified Payroll Reporting in 50 States

2010-01-28T13:47:00.000-08:00

Government contractors across the country who use Paychex payroll solutions can now guarantee accuracy and save time with the Points North Certified Payroll solution. Paychex has partnered with the Duluth-based software developer to expand its certified payroll offerings, including state-and local-level reports for companies that receive government funds.

"Our partnership with Points North allows us to provide our clients with a streamlined solution for meeting the prevailing wage and reporting requirements at all levels of government-subsidized work," said Michael Gioja, Paychex vice president of product management and development. "With Points North as our partner, we help our clients keep their focus on their business by offering convenient and accurate certified payroll reporting that relieves the hassles and stress of meeting complex federal regulations."

Points North integrates with Paychex payroll software to provide comprehensive and accurate certified payroll reports, including the most frequently required WH-347 Payroll Certification Form and the WH-348 Compliance Statement. The software allows differentiation between federal and state reports by job, and can generate both union and non-union reports.

To learn more about Certified Payroll Reporting, visit www.certifiedpayrollreporting.com.

Strict Enforcement

2009-10-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has created many jobs. "Seven months into the Recovery Act, it is clear that this program is successfully fulfilling its broad mission of helping those harmed by the economic crisis, aiding in our recovery and laying a new foundation to keep America competitive in the 21st century," Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis' statement of September employment numbers on October 2, 2009.

With the creation of new projects came the hiring of 250 new investigators in the agency's Wage & Hour Division (WHD). Their main task is to monitor wage and hour violations. These additional investigators are probing allegations of minimum wage, overtime and prevailing wage violations. Enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act (DBA) is a key concern and the WHD has been cracking down. WHD officials guaranteed increased review of certified payroll records to enforce prevailing wage in attention to the DBA.

Compliance with the DBA can be simple with accurate Certified Payroll (Form WH 347) and Compliance Statement (Form WH 348) reporting and tracking. For solutions and samples of these and other state specific reports visit: http://www.certifiedpayrollreporting.com/

Senators Kerry and Boxer Introduced the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act

2009-10-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

Senator John Kerry and Senator Barbara Boxer introduced the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act to the Senate.

Purpose: To create clean energy jobs, promote energy independence, reduce global warming pollution, and transition to a clean energy economy.

Section 128 stands out for contractors and subcontractors who will continue to do Federally funded projects. -
"Section 128. Davis-Bacon Compliance. Requires recipients of emission allowances or funding under this Act to provide reasonable assurances that all laborers and mechanics employed by contractors and subcontractors on projects funded directly by or assisted in whole or in part by the Federal Government pursuant to this Act will be paid at least prevailing wages as determined by the Secretary of Labor in accordance with what is commonly known as the Davis-Bacon Act (subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title 40, United States Code). Excludes application of these provisions to retrofitting of residential buildings (apart from large apartment buildings) and smaller nonresidential buildings." Section Summary

Bill Links:
Read an overview of the bill.
Read a summary of the bill.
Read a section by section summary of the bill.
Read the full bill text.

Certified Payroll Reporting

2009-09-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 requires all contractors and subcontractors who perform work on federally assisted construction projects over $2,000, and federal government construction contracts, are required to submit weekly Certified Payroll Reports.Most commonly used is the WH-347 report. A sample of the WH-347 and other area specific required reports can be found at the following link:http://www.certifiedpayrollreporting.com/report.htm

Federal Funds Require E-Verify

2009-09-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

E-Verify- Federal Authorization on New Hires
The Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration have partnered to create the E-Verify system. Every contract that includes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause is required to submit their employee to verify their eligibility to work in the U.S. This includes all contractors and subcontractors who receive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.Employers are required to authorize each employee with the I-9 forms and then manually input the employees information into E-Verify Registration. The process is simple and initial worker authorization results take 3-5 seconds.
The E-Verify system data fields are:
Question 1- Employee U.S. Citizenship
Question 2- Employee Identification Type
Question 3- SSN, Date of Birth, Full Name, Hire Date (current or a past hire date only because E-Verify is not a prescreen), and another individualized number such as Passport number or License number depending on the type of identification