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How do I bid prevailing wage?

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#21 ·
Unless your bid docs ask for a break down (unusual) just give your total price for the job. If you are working with a union find out about the apprentices they require and if there is a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) in place. Don't forget administrative cost for certified payroll. Are there any bond requirements?
 
#22 ·
I'm not sure i get this.. You guys are saying say prevailing wage rate is like $48/hr (about same here in NY) but are'nt you forgetting the benefits we need to include on top of wage? Or is that not the case. I was told to bid about $95/hr for prevailing wage for nassau county on LI,NY. Then add O&P...Is this wrong?
 
#23 ·
You're replying to a five year old thread. But never the less, PW is the calculated on the total cost of an equivalent union worker. So if an BM got $39/hr, with a health plan and pension contribution of $8/hr, the PW for a boilermaker would be $47/hr.

From this $47, you could subtract your true cost of the contributions you make to your employees health, pension(s) and profit sharing. These must be able to be verified. You need all the numbers, you can't make this stuff up.
 
#26 ·
Yep our guys make $62/hr (ironworker), but our burden is about $110/hr. Then add WC to that (we are also blessed with one of the highest rates...) and we're over $135 an hour per man.

We also have to request union apprentices on our pw jobs. So sometimes they send one and we never know what kinda person we're gonna get. We have to request an apprentice for 1 out of 5 field hours on the job. And heaven forbid we forget to request one, the union can rain down hell on us.
 
#29 ·
Prevailing wage in califonia is a non-starter for me. We did a lot of that type of work in high end homes, and I was very well acquainted with MANY collegues who had been involved in prevailing wage wallcovering/painting jobs, in CA. You will be bidding against many who will lie, cheat, and steal their way to a bid. I never ONCE bothered bidding on that stuff. But, to give you an example of what I knew went on (and yes, guys usually eventually get caught and get their license yanked and jail time,....., but that doesn't happen until they've already taken the life out of any honest bid.
For example.:
pay guys near minimum wage and have them work 12/7 s and then pay them on paper what looks like lower hours at prevailing wage. (BY THE WAY,..LAST I HEARD, WHICH WAS 15 YEARS AGO,..PREVAILING WAGE IN LA WAS AROUND 30 BUCKS AN HOUR...MIGHT BE MORE LIKE 50 NOW.)
Pay off whoever will take a payoff..to look the other way.

It is mostly the union that, because it's in their interest,..is involved in catching cheaters.

In a "coatings" bid (commercial/public jobs only). I could swear it seemed like more often that not that the contractor would be paying off an inspector to say he did the required 2 coats when in reality it was 1 coat. One man that worked for me told me his old boss (this was in the 1990s),..had been paying about $30,000 per year cash to different city officials and sending them to vegas etc.,..to keep the jobs coming in. This particular man ended up in Jail, but I think he was at it for a few years before he got nailed.
Good luck on going commercial. If you can make an honest go of it good for you. For me, I never thought it was worht trying so I stuck with the beverly hills type stuff.
 
#30 ·
gfourth said:
Yep our guys make $62/hr (ironworker), but our burden is about $110/hr. Then add WC to that (we are also blessed with one of the highest rates...) and we're over $135 an hour per man.

We also have to request union apprentices on our pw jobs. So sometimes they send one and we never know what kinda person we're gonna get. We have to request an apprentice for 1 out of 5 field hours on the job. And heaven forbid we forget to request one, the union can rain down hell on us.
Click to expand...
Yep.......But don't let us think you're getting the same price for the job. And for the post above, office workers and the owner are excluded from all scale pay.
 
#31 ·
To all

Contractors and subcontractors do not bid labor. They get reimbursed for their labor costs. That is the purpose of certification. The purpose of seemingly high wages for mechanics is to discourage those who operate on a shoestring and do not have sufficient means. Prevailing wages under the Miller Act are minimums that must be paid. Mechanics can charge more than the minimum. All mechanics and materialmen employed by contractors and subcontractors is on a cost plus basis. The plus is the contractor's or subcontractor's contract price. Read the Miller Act.

To better understand this one only need to understand lien laws. Where I live, Arizona, the lien laws contemplate two conditions under which labor and materials may be furnished for the construction, alteration, or repair of buildings and other structures: First, at the instance of the property owner; Or, second, at the instance of the owner's agent. All contractors and subcontractors are deemed agents of the owner. That is typical of lien laws all over the country and of lien laws that date back well over 150 years. Arizona's contractor licensing laws require that these agents be licensed. If you understand what an agent is then you can understand the Miller Act. Contractors and subcontractors are government agents on federal projects.
 
#33 ·
Trussme

Suppose a man acts as painting contractor on his own house. He solicits labor bids from 5 painters. He gets two fixed prices and three hourly rates. He then get bids from paint suppliers who all give him a price per gallon.

Second scenario. He gets bids from five painting contractors. What will their bids be. Since they are neither mechanics nor materialmen they can't bid labor and they can't bid materials. It is absurd to think that they bid someone else's labor or materials. So what do their bids look like? Hint. In the first scenario where the owner acts as contractor there is only the cost of labor and materials but no fee.
 
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RH*carpenter
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