Davis Bacon Wage Questions

[rshackleford]

Are there any instances in which Davis Bacon wages are not paid?

Warranty work?
Superintendents?
Foreman?
Mobilization?

Thanks in advance to any Davis Bacon experts out there.

 

[heavylift]

the one thing I don't like is the separation of the inside / outside... Building work is high dollar, as dirt work is typically the same LOW wage as any other job. The last davis/bacon job I worked that company didn't know the difference.. Lucky for me

There was always a COE guy on the job asking your wage.

the super was salaried as was the engineers and QC. the foremans were paid whatever the scale said for their craft
I knew the dirt tester that we would call... He said to call him more often cause it paid better, he wasn't part of the company I worked for.

Don't know about the warranty or mobilization
Demobilization we were paid D/B scale, which really was only about a week of cleaning the site, loading trucks to move equipment and material off the site

 

[Raildudes dad]

If there are federal dollars used to pay for any portion of the project, Davis Bacon wages must be paid for all work on the project. I can only speak to MI road building projects, but the project proposal includes a wage rate "decision" which lists in much detail the wages and fringes that must be paid to every conceivable craft. As the project engineer, myself or my inspector interview at least 1 person from each craft as to what they are making and compare to certified payrolls that the contractor is paying the correct wages and fringes. Salaried personnel are exempt and do not need to be shown on the certified payroll. Supervisory personnel that are paid hourly must be shown and are usually paid a top operator wage.

It really gets fun when the contractor pays an employee for laboring for part of the time, a 2nd class of laboring for another part of the day, 1 class of operator for another part and a 2nd operator rate for another part of the day. (Obviously a non-union shop).

D-B wages must be paid for on site work. Trucking drivers bringing in material from off site are exempt. If they stay all day on the job site, D-B wages must be paid. Vendors delivering on site are exempt.

 

[grandpa]

Don't have to pay davis bacon wages if all employees are family..... I just got underbid on a nice job from a family of hillbilly's..grrrrr.

 

[ror76a]

Don't have to pay davis bacon wages if all employees are family..... I just got underbid on a nice job from a family of hillbilly's..grrrrr.

That's not entirely correct. It doesn't matter if they are family. If they own a certian percent of the company then they can be exempt.

 

[lcptracker]

What are your thoughts on Davis-Bacon? Our company just released an article about Davis-Bacon and the American Dream and wanted to get some feedback! Check out our article at www.lcptrackerblog.com/wordpress/169

 

[rshackleford]

What are your thoughts on Davis-Bacon? Our company just released an article about Davis-Bacon and the American Dream and wanted to get some feedback! Check out our article at www.lcptrackerblog.com/wordpress/169

I couldn't agree less with your article.

 

[mitch504]

Yeah, that was a waste of my time and bandwidth.

 

[heavylift]

last davis bacon job I was one was about 8 to 9 bucks an hour higher... Can't say the quality of work was any better. It still had the 10,000 page punch list like any other job. 99% of the list was BS.

Most interesting thing was the miltary police surrounding the concrete crew from Oklahoma, COE found a dope pipe in the out house by the crews trucks... I was impressed with the bus load that left in the base's blue bus.. Don't know what happened other than their equipment set there for a week , then it was released.. They were also denied entry to all military bases.

 

[lcptracker]

I couldn't agree less with your article.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our article!!
Glad you liked it!!
-LCPtracker

 

[John C.]

I would have to ask what kind of company you work for? The kind of propaganda I see there is what I have experienced from government bureaucrats trying to justify their jobs.

 

[mitch504]

John, from looking around that website, I think he works for a company that sells software for keeping track of that mess.

I thought it interesting that he thought RShackelford liked his article.

 

[lcptracker]

Davis Bacon the American Dream

I would have to ask what kind of company you work for? The kind of propaganda I see there is what I have experienced from government bureaucrats trying to justify their jobs.

Hi John, We are not a government agency. This is an op-ed piece that I admit I have bias on. I don't claim to be objective. I however ask you to consider the facts in my op-ed, especially the simple math I point out on the true costs. Some of the folks against Davis Bacon fabricate information, and I wanted to put what I believe to be the reality out in the market. As and example, If Labor costs are average 25% of the construction costs, then 6.5% is the total potential savings you can gain by repeal of Davis Bacon, this is if you cut wage rates by 25%. The realities of this are just not there, and for folks to suggest 15-20% savings is really just making up stuff. I lay out the other benefits to projects as well in my op-ed. So Repeal would cost the Country these benefits and lots of potential costs. Health Care, and Workers Compensation being the two most costly. I have lived in this world for 10 years now and my software company has greatly automated the labor compliance process. My experience with the 10,000 plus projects we have been involved with mirror my op-ed..

LCPtracker is a software company that has automated the compliance tracking of davis bacon and prevailing wage.

Mark Douglas
President.

 

[akroadrunner]

I always get hosed on those DB projects. I own my truck. If I'm hauling gravel or asphalt for a DB project, my rate stays the same. Even if I work way past 8 hours a day. On the other hand, the chick flagging traffic makes almost as much as me when overtime kicks in, and she didn't bring a $120,000 truck to the show and provide a $1,000,000 insurance policy. Anytime we try to get the truck rate up, there is some DBE willing to cut everyone's throat. Then they will want to broker trucks and steal a cut from us if we do work the job. I HATE brokers, especially DBE brokers. Thieves is all they are. Greedy thieves!

 

[lcptracker]

if your working overtime, labor laws and DB requires you get paid overtime. if your not then whom ever is paying you is not following the laws..

 

[akroadrunner]

I own the truck. They always want the contract truckers to fill out paperwork saying we are not paid/exempt. Never got a dime of overtime on any job my truck was hired on. You would think the rate would go up after 8 hours, especially since Alaska law says you pay overtime after 8 per day or 40 per week. If you mention you need more money for the truck after 8 hours, you will be horse laughed off the job. Never got a higher rate on ANY DB job. Again, horse laugh and the DBE crooks will cut your throat and then expect you to work for them cheap. That's why I DON'T work for brokers.
Never could figure out why the companies that have hired drivers don't try to get the rate up after 8 hours, but they never do. Maybe things will change some day, but it will require the cut throats to go under first. Where's Jimmy Hoffa when you need him?

 

[Greg]

Any projects with a total cost of less than $25,000.00 are exempt from Davis Bacon wages.
The article from above is a farse. In the case of hired trucks, if an employee driver is operating the truck rather than the owner it is totally impossible for the owner to cover costs when the operating cost of the truck is included along with the DB wages.

 

[akroadrunner]

Multi million dollar highway jobs funded with Federal money. Everyone on the job gets DB except the contract trucks. Even the company owned truck drivers won't get DB wages if they leave the job site and return to the plant for another load of D1 or asphalt. The guys running the asphalt plant won't get DB either since the plant owner makes sure to include a few loads for a private job. There is always an out to screw the little guy, while the State employees rake it in. Every one of those jobs will have these fresh faced kids walking around holding a clipboard and looking totally lost. I would bet my days truck rate that they are the kids of other State employees. Getting their free college money, no doubt.

 

[Mark Thompson]

Not sure of current rules but when I worked as a operator on a buildings and trade job covered under the Bacon and Davis scale we had to be onsite, anyone that came and went were not covered under the scale. Sometimes the scale was below our pay-grade so we just kept out of the political money end but we always were informed ahead of time on the project and pay. The scale is supposed to be posted in a conspicuous place where all people are allowed to view it at any time on the job.