Exempting from the prevailing wage law a public works project that is subject to the federal Davis-Bacon Act. (FE)

What it would have done

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Under current law, laborers, workers, mechanics, and truck drivers employed on the site of certain state or local projects of public works (generally single-trade projects whose estimated cost of completion is $48,000 or more and multiple-trade projects whose estimated cost of completion is $100,000 or more): 1) must be paid at the rate paid for a majority of the hours worked in the person's trade or occupation in the area in which the project is located, as determined by the Department of Workforce Development; and 2) may not be required or permitted to work a greater number of hours per day and per week than the prevailing hours of labor, which is no more than ten hours per day and 40 hours per week, unless they are paid 1.5 times their basic rate of pay (commonly referred to as "overtime pay") for all hours worked in excess of the prevailing hours of labor (prevailing wage law).

This bill exempts from the prevailing wage law a project of public works that is subject to the federal Davis-Bacon Act, which requires mechanics and laborers employed on the site of a project of public works under a contract in excess of $2,000 to which the federal government is a party to be paid the prevailing wage, as determined by the federal secretary of labor, for projects of similar character in the civil subdivision of the state in which the work is performed and to be paid any overtime pay to which the laborer or mechanic is entitled under federal law.

Who's behind it

2 senators are its authors⁠. All 2 are Republicans.

16 more lawmakers signed on in support⁠.

What it would cost

State agencies filed a cost estimate. Each opens as a PDF from the Legislature.

• Fiscal Estimate From DWD