CONNECTICUT
1)
When is the prevailing wage rate used?
State law allows the state Department of Labor
(DOL) either to use U. S. Department of Labor’s prevailing
wage rates for Connecticut or hold its own hearings in order
to gather data to calculate prevailing wage rates. CT DOL uses
the federally calculated prevailing wage for the various areas
of the state.
The federal Davis-Bacon Act requires the U. S.
DOL to gather wage rate information to determine the prevailing
wage for every area in the country. The information is gathered
through voluntary surveys completed by unions, contractors,
and government agencies. The prevailing rate is (1) the wage
paid to a majority (at least 50%) of the laborers or mechanics
in a particular job classification in a geographic area or (2)
if the same wage is not paid to a majority of workers in a classification,
then the average of the wages paid in that classification.
STATE LAW AND PREVAILING WAGE
The state's prevailing wage law requires the state
and towns to pay workers on large public works construction
projects the same wage as is “customarily” paid
for the same work in the town where the work is being performed.
It applies to all new construction projects costing $ 400,000
or more and alteration and repair jobs costing $ 100,000 or
more (CGS § 31-53 et seq. ).
The state DOL may set the prevailing wage rates
for a project either by holding a hearing to gather wage information
or by adopting the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage determinations
of the U. S. DOL. The state has always used the federally calculated
rates for a few reasons, according to John McCarthy, state DOL
legislative liaison:
• It saves money because the state avoids
holding its own hearings and doing the calculations itself.
• The state is bound to use the federal
prevailing wage in any project getting federal assistance such
as federal highway dollars or housing and urban development
assistance, so using the federal prevailing wage allows all
projects in the state to use one set of prevailing wage rates.
