A&W wins significant wage case for construction industry client

Andrews & Wyatt recently scored a significant prevailing wage victory for a client and for all merit shop contractors.  The Franklin County Court of Common Pleas ruled that in determining the fringe benefit credit for prevailing wage, employers must divide by hours worked on public projects only, not all hours worked on both public and private jobs.  (Read the decision here).

When your company pays for certain benefits (health insurance, the employer’s 401(k) contribution, training, etc.) you are permitted to take credit for those contributions toward the payment of prevailing wage on public projects.  Even though the prevailing wage law applies to public projects only, the Ohio Department of Commerce has taken the position that in order to come up with an hourly credit an employer must divide the fringe benefit contributions by all hours worked by the employee on public and private projects, even though the prevailing wage law applies only to public projects.  For example, if the employer paid $5000 dollars per year for the employee’s health insurance, the employer could take a $2.40 per hour credit toward its prevailing wage obligation ($5000 divided by 2080 hours worked).

This decision from Franklin County says that in calculating the fringe benefit credit you may divide by hours worked on public projects only.  So, if the employee works only 1000 hours on public projects you would be able to divide the $5000 payment for health insurance by 1000 hours for a prevailing wage credit of $5.00 per hour.

This decision relies on two other decisions obtained by the attorneys of Andrews & Wyatt.  While the Department continues to rely on its outdated interpretation of the law, this decision and the decisions of the Sixth District Court of Appeals allow for significantly higher credits for your fringe benefit contributions.

For more information or for assistance with any prevailing wage issue, call Dave Andrews or Jerry Cline.