In previous blog posts, we’ve talked about the critical importance of the Bid Advertisement Date when determining your job’s California prevailing wage rate. And we’ve talked about the significance of superseded prevailing wage decisons. So, we thought it made sense to touch on the “Important Notices” section of the DIR website.

So, what exactly are the Important Notices? These are used by the DIR to announce important information about prevailing wage work. What kind of information? Well, all kinds. But the one we want to focus on for this blog is the use of Important Notices for modifying predetermined increases to previously published prevailing wage rates. Which, in English, means a change in what you’re supposed to be paying your employees. You read that right. The DIR reserves the right to change the prevailing wage determination for your job’s bid advertisement date and supersede it with a new prevailing wage rate!

Now, there are no doubt some people reading this right now and cringing with visions of the DIR mercilessly changing California Prevailing Wage rates – just to make the lives of contractors a living hell. Fortunately, however, that kind of disregard for employers is not the case. The modification to the prevailing wages is usually due to the unions revising their collective bargaining agreements downward, or delaying an increase. If the union files their revised CBA with the DLSR prior to the increase taking effect, the DLSR generally will revise likewise through the publication of the Important Notice. How often do you hear of the government saying, “hey, we made a mistake and don’t want you to overpay your employees?”

Therefore, it is ALWAYS important to check the Important Notices when you are gathering your information for bid and/or when paying a prevailing wage project to assure that you have the most up to date information.

The DIR has made it convenient for contractors to find these Important Notices.  You may sign up for their email subscription service which will allow you to receive a notice from the DLSR when a new Important Notice has been published.  Here is the link to sign up for this important service: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlsr/NoticeIndex.htm