SB 46

Under the current prevailing wage law, certain laborers, workers, mechanics,

and truck drivers employed on a project of public works contracted by a local

governmental unit for which the project cost of completion is $25,000 or more

(statutory threshold) must be paid at the rate paid for a majority of the hours worked

in the person's trade or occupation in the county in which the project is located, as

determined by the Department of Workforce Development (DWD), and may not be

required or permitted to work more than ten hours per day and 40 hours per week,

unless they are paid 1.5 times their basic rate of pay for all hours worked in excess

of those hours. Currently, for purposes of the prevailing wage law, "local

governmental unit" is defined to include a political subdivision of this state, which

includes a town.

This bill raises from $25,000 to $125,000 the statutory threshold for

applicability of the prevailing wage law to a highway, road, street, bridge, sanitary

sewer, or water main project erected, constructed, repaired, remodeled, or

demolished for a town. The bill also requires DWD to adjust the statutory thresholds

for applicability of the prevailing wage law every year by the change in construction

costs since the establishment of those statutory thresholds.