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These are the best of times, these are the worst of times.

iPhones come with "Siri," their own personal assistant. Many people are speaking with "Siri" -- in the unemployment line.

A couple of weeks ago we posted a blog about shift differential pay for prevailing wage projects.  While that may have confused many of you, we thought we should also cover shift differential pay overtime.  Why not confuse you some more?

When talking with prospective clients, the subject inevitably turns to 401(k) or similar retirement plans, and more often than not the response we get is, “I don’t want to discuss my pension plan.”   Of course, we always follow that with the obvious “why?” The responses we get back? “I just moved my plan and I’m not interested in doing THAT again” or “I REALLY love my TPA and wouldn’t think of moving it” or “I like having everything in one place (Paychex does my payroll AND my 401(k)!)” You get the idea.

Some of you may remember that we posted a blog a few months ago that talked about a confusing aspect of California’s Prevailing Wage Overtime pay rules –  and in that post we told you that there would be some other fun examples of why being a prevailing wage contractor can be so challenging! Well, here you go!

Nothing feels better - when you're in the service business - than getting a compliment on your work. We are proud of our work and grateful to hear that our clients find it helpful!

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WM O'NEILL LATH & PLASTERING

November 9, 2011

We're still scratching our heads about this one. As followers of our blog know, we find the political reality of Prevailing Wage laws to be endlessly fascinating. And, based upon this article we found in the Michigan Messenger, the role of prevailing wage ordinances in the Lansing City Council races is no exception. You should take a few minutes and glance at the article.

We got this guidance from one of our colleagues at LISI and thought it was worth passing on! Back in March of this year, the IRS released an interim ruling (Notice 2011-28) which that states only groups with 250 or more filed W2’s have to comply with the regulation. As our colleague points out, this applies to 250 filed W2’s, not 250 employees. What's the difference? Well, if your company experiences a lot of turnover, you may find yourself in a position where you have fewer than 250 employees on payroll...

We get asked (a lot!) how to calculate the correct overtime pay rate for California Prevailing Wage jobs; and, to be completely honest, if you’re having trouble, there’s one very simple explanation… it’s nearly impossible to simply explain, in a blog post, exactly how prevailing wage overtime rates are calculated… And here’s the reason why… because the rules are complicated, confusing and inconsistent.

To illustrate our point, let’s start with what the rule books say.

Lest you forget that all of these battles over the value and benefit of Davis-Bacon Construction jobs has been going on forever, we thought it would be worthwhile to post this little ditty from 1983. It's worth a read if only because it's a nice reminder that the battle over union workers and government wages for public works projects (i.e. the Davis-Bacon Act) is nothing new.