Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship

Q & A FROM OSA LABOR COMPLIANCE PRESENTATION

November 17, 2021

Q.  Are prevailing wages required on Auxiliary projects such as dormitories or leased buildings?

A.  Per CRS  § 24-92-201 (5) the definition of Public Project, Public Projects are subject to the Prevailing Wage requirements if they are on State land or if the project is for the use of "…one or more agencies of government."  By definition, all State agencies and State institutions of higher education are “agencies and government” In short, it does not matter if a project is auxiliary funded or leased, if it is to be used by the State, not federally funded or exempted prior to July 1, 2021 it must pay prevailing wage.

Q.  Does Prevailing Wage apply to projects between $500K and $2M that do not use State funds? 

A.  If a project is for the use of the State and is $500k or over, not federally funded or exempted, prevailing wage is required.

Q.  What about federally funded projects?

A. Federally funded projects are exempted from State Prevailing Wage requirements.

Q.  Should we be considering construction contract costs only or overall project costs?

A.  It is the Construction Value, not the Total Project Cost that determines if prevailing wage is applicable.

Q.  What if the "jobsite" is in multiple buildings, locations or spaces?  Does each area where work is taking place need a poster?

A.  Labor posters should be located in conspicuous places where laborers will see them. It is up to the contractor to place the posters where their workers will see them.

Q.  If the cost goes over the $500K during the project, how is the project affected?

A.  If Contract agreements are anticipated to be slightly below $500k at the time of solicitation, they should be solicited with the State Prevailing Wage as a good faith effort. If the successful bid is below $500k they are not required to pay prevailing wage.   If projects go over $500K after contract award they are not required to start Prevailing Wage.  A word of caution, the statute is very clear that “…agencies of government shall not artificially divide public projects to avoid compliance…”

LCPtracker Overview Presentations Q & A
November 30, December 1, and December 2, 2021

Q. Will you cover today how the law or the App treats Contractor subs?  Let’s say that our contractor uses a sub for a lump sum service payment of $10k.  How generally do we set up for that kind of labor in the app?

A. Prevailing wage is determined by the contract agreement, regardless of the subcontractor obligations to the general contractor.  The Prime contractor (general contractor) and subcontractors are responsible for entering their payrolls on a weekly basis.

Q. Will contractor monthly training dates/times be known 2-3 months in advance, or what is the typical lead-time for LCPtracker to announce the monthly contractor training?  

A. Contractor training will be done once a month for any new contractors not familiar with LCPtracker.  If something is needed/wanted sooner, training videos can be accessed on the LCPtracker platform at anytime.

Q. Is LCPtracker prepared to provide preloaded wage rates for a given bid solicitation at this time (given guidance from OSA and the Agency)?

A. LCPtracker will have all of the wage data entered into the system for use once a project is entered.  Wages for Solicitations should be taken from the OSA website.

Q. Can you demonstrate how to access the system?

A. This will be done during the Agency/IHE training sessions.

Q. Do we need to have a W-9 for all contractors and subcontractors to define them in the system?

A. You do not need a W-9 to define contractors and subcontractors in the LCPtracker system.  This will be clarified more during the training sessions.

Q. Who would the Prime Approver be?

A. The Prime contractor will responsible for assigning the role of Prime Approver.   It will be someone from their office.

Q. What if a Public Project includes Federal Funds?  I thought that was an exemption.

A. Federally Funded projects are exempt from State Prevailing wage requirements. They may still be required to follow Federal Davis Bacon and Related Acts but that would fall outside of State LCPTracker requirements.

Q. My understanding is that this only applies to the construction trades, not to engineering or design firms, is that correct?

A. That is correct, State prevailing wage is only applicable to construction contracts of a Public Project. Professional Services and other Goods and Services as described by the Procurement Code, are not subject to State prevailing wage and apprenticeship.

Public Project Labor Compliance

Q. What is considered a Public Project?

A. A Public Project is any construction, alteration, repair, demolition or improvement of any land, building, structure, facility, road, highway, bridge or other public improvement for the State including any work, construction or repair performed by a private party through a contract to rent lease or purchase at least fifty percent of the project by one or more State agencies. Refer to CRS 24-92-201(5)

Apprenticeship Utilization Compliance

Q. Who is required to Report Apprentice Utilization?

A. General Contractors bidding on Public Projects estimated at one million dollars or more that does not receive federal money are required to submit Apprenticeship Certification prior to the execution of the contract for all mechanical, sheet metal, fire suppression, sprinkler fitting, electrical, and plumbing trades.

Payroll Compliance

Q. What is Certified Payroll?

A. In order to ensure that the construction labor workforce is paid prevailing wages for their work, contractors must enter project payroll data into the LCPtracker system on a weekly basis, and then certify that the data entered is compliant with The Office of the State Architect’s Public Projects Policy. Contractors must also submit the the Contractor Fringe Benefit Statement for each project via LCPtracker.  Each employee that works on a project will need to have an Employees Consent for Wage Deductions form completed and uploaded into LCPtracker and benefits must be expressed as a dollar amount. Benefits required by law are not eligible for consideration in the Fringe Benefits (e.g., Social Security, Affordable Care Act, and Workers' Compensation). 

Q. Who is Required to Report Certified Payrolls?

A. Every contractor and sub-contractor (subs) working on a State of Colorado Public Project is responsible for entering and certifying weekly payroll while actively working on the project. The prime contractor is then responsible for reviewing and approving all data entered by subs, and the project manager (agency or institution) will then review and either accept or reject the payrolls for the month.

LCPtracker

Q. What is LCPtracker?

A. LCPtracker is the State of Colorado system for monitoring labor compliance for construction contracts. All construction contractors (primes and subs) must log in to LCPtracker weekly to submit and certify payrolls. Professional Services as defined by CRS 24-30-1402 are not required to use LCPtracker. LCPtracker allows the Department of Personnel & Administration (DPA) to monitor and report on labor compliance requirements including certified payroll and apprenticeship.

LCPtracker Roles & Responsibilities

Different project roles will utilize LCP differently; see the table below for your responsibilities.