This is part three of our posts on helping you choose the best of the prevailing wage experts that are out there. In our first post, we explained how we think that prevailing wage experts must really be experts on prevailing wage forms & filing as well as understanding what makes employee benefit plans bona fide for Davis-Bacon & prevailing wage. Then, in our second post on finding a prevailing wage expert, you may recall that we spoke about the importance of compliance and plan operation. Which brings us to the next in our series!

So, what else should Prevailing Wage Experts know? Well, they should not only understand the complex employee benefit annualization issues which affect prevailing wage benefit plans, but they should be able to explain those issues out to you as part of their sale. More importantly, they should be prepared to back-up their explanation with some kind of documentation. And, yes, there is documentation on annualization rules that exists – and every prevailing wage expert knows it. If they tell you to ‘just take their word for it’… well, you can do that math.

Then there’s another issue that prevailing wage experts must be versed in – and that’s how and what the plan takes credit for. Perhaps not surprisingly given that prevailing wage is a government creation, but the rules governing what can and can’t be taken as credit are not as clear-cut as you’d think they should be. Which is to say, they should be able to show you not only what credits are being taken by the employee benefit plan; but, more importantly, when asked, they should be able to tell you (AND SHOW YOU!) why those credits are legal.

So there you go. Enough for this post. If you find these helpful in your search for a prevailing wage expert, drop us a line and let us know. Better yet, if you find someone you think we should know about, let us know. We’re crazy about this prevailing wage stuff and always eager to know other people who feel the same!