Important Information for Wisconsin Government Contractors

Wisconsin has its own prevailing wage law. Quite recently, it made headlines when Wisconsin Republicans propose repealing the current WI prevailing wage laws.

In Wisconsin, the prevailing wage for any trade or occupation includes the hourly basic rate of pay plus fringe benefits. Prevailing wage contractors pay the total wage rate based on the wage determination in either one of the following ways:

1)    all cash to replace any fringe benefit

2)    or a combination of cash and fringe benefits that the contractor pays for Non-entitled Workers

There are some workers who are not entitled to receive the prevailing wage rate. This covers laborers, mechanics or truck drivers who are employed to process, manufacture or deliver materials from a commercial establishment that supplies manufactured materials or from a facility that is not dedicated exclusively to a project of public works.

Threshold on Prevailing Wage Determination

Projects of public works require prevailing wage rate determination. Their total estimated completion costs may exceed the following single or multiple-trade thresholds.

1)    single-trade project with total labor cost of 85% or more has a threshold of $48,000

2)    multiple-trade project with no single-trade account having 85% or more of the total labor cost has a threshold of $100,000 unless the municipality falls under #3 below

3)    multi-trade threshold of $234,000 applies to projects constructed, repaired or demolished by a private contractor for a city or college having a population that is less than 2500 or a town

It is important to note that state highway and bridge projects are covered by state law in Wisconsin. Therefore, it has no threshold set forth. Most work on the project site subject to these laws must be paid for at the prevailing wage rate.

ARCHER JORDAN is Committed to Serving You WI Prevailing Wage Contractors

Do you feel like there’s too much to know and you have no more time to study all these? Why not let ARCHER JORDAN help simplify things for you? We understand that government contracting in itself is already complex. This is why at ARCHER JORDAN, we make sure to stay updated with state-specific legislations so you can comply with your responsibilities under the law.

Our aim at ARCHER JORDAN is to guide you with state specific requirements so this will be one less of your worry. Contact us today and we will help you learn more about state prevailing wage laws in a simplified way.