Have you heard about Senate Bill 1370, the act to add Section 1730 to the Labor Code?!  Before your eyes glaze over, let me tell you, this is actually GOOD news!  If passed, the new Section 1730 would read: “The Director of Industrial Relations shall post a list of every California code section and the language of those sections that relate to the prevailing rate of per diem wage requirements for workers employed on a public work on the Internet Web site of the Department of Industrial Relations on or before June 1, 2013, and shall update that list each February 1 thereafter.” Just last week, this bill was approved by the Senate Labor Committee and will next be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee.  Should this act pass, it will be effective no later than June 1, 2013.  It will require the Department of Industrial Relations to post a list of EVERY California code section that relates to prevailing wage rate requirements for workers employed on public works projects on their website.

How does this change things? Currently, no one specific location exists where ALL projects subject to state mandated prevailing wages are listed and every prevailing wage contractor knows the result. YOU bear the responsibility for finding out if your job is a prevailing wage job. SB 1370 attempts to level the playing field by giving the DIR responsibility for communicating that information to you. SO, instead of you bearing sole responsibility for finding the prevailing wage job, the DIR will now have share responsibility for telling you about it. Senator Tom Berryhill claims, “SB 1370 will make it easier for businesses to determine whether their project is subject to prevailing wage… Having a one-stop shop for all prevailing wage statutes will save time, get projects going, and put people to work.”  We couldn’t agree more!

We agree with the Senator. This new web-based listing should increase government transparency and improve compliance with both project owners and contractors alike… Not to mention, we think it will make the lives of our California Prevailing Wage contractors a little bit easier!  We will definitely keep you in the loop on the progress of this bill.  As always, feel free to contact our office for any questions relating to your Prevailing Wage needs.