WHATS NEW?
Maryland Lowers Prevailing Wage Threshold to $250,000
The Maryland legislature recently reduced the prevailing wage threshold in the State to $250,000. This lower threshold is also being adopted by various counties that implement prevailing wage compliance on their local projects. The prior threshold of $500,000 was the highest in the country. Some states, which implement their own prevailing wage requirements, have no threshold and some have various thresholds ranging from $1,000 to $250,000.
While this lower threshold probably does not impact most of the prevailing wage projects in the State, it does, in fact, impact maintenance and repair work within the State. Typical on-call work, involving road repairs and repairs to buildings, will now include more projects at this lower threshold amount.
California’s Interpretation of Apprenticeship Ratios
California has an apprenticeship goal of 20%; that is one apprentice hour to every five journeyman hours work (Operating Engineers, Laborers and Teamsters have some exceptions). That 1:5 ratio is reviewed by the DIR at the end of the project for compliance purposes.
However, do not confuse this with the need for apprentices to be supervised on a project on a DAILY, per hour basis. Remember that apprenticeship is an on-the-job training opportunity and if there is not a journeyman working alongside the apprentice, then the apprentice is not receiving the benefit of that supervision. If an apprentice is working without supervision, be it one hour or the entire day, the apprentice will need to be paid the full journeyman wage and fringe benefit package for all time they worked without journeyman supervision.
