Wage Determination Procedures

29 C.F.R. Part ..., Subpart B
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01

29 C.F.R. § 4.50 Types of wage and fringe benefit determinations.

The Administrator specifies the minimum monetary wages and fringe benefits to be paid as required under the Act in two types of determinations: (a) Prevailing in the locality. (1) Determinations that set forth minimum monetary wages and fringe benefits determined to be prevailing for various classes of service employees in the locality (sections 2(a)(1) and 2(a)(2) of the Act) after giving “due consideration” to the rates applicable to such service employees if directly hired by the Federal Government (section 2(a)(5) of the Act). (2) The prevailing wage determinations applicable to most contracts covered by the Act are based upon cross-industry survey data. However, in some cases the Department of Labor may issue industry specific wage determinations for application to specific types of service contracts. In addition, the geographic scope of contracts is often different and the geographic scope of the underlying survey data for the wage determinations applicable to those contracts may be different. Therefore, a variety of different prevailing wage determinations may be applicable in a particular locality. The application of these different prevailing wage determinations will depend upon the nature of the contracts to which they are applied. (b) Collective Bargaining Agreement—(Successorship). Determinations that set forth the wage rates and fringe benefits, including accrued and prospective increases, contained in a collective bargaining agreement applicable to the service employees who performed on a predecessor contract in the same locality. (See sections 2(a)(1) and (2) as well as 4(c) of the Act.)

29 C.F.R. § 4.51 Prevailing in the locality determinations.

(a) Information considered. The minimum monetary wages and fringe benefits set forth in determinations of the Secretary are based on all available pertinent information as to wage rates and fringe benefits being paid at the time the determination is made. Such information is most frequently derived from area surveys made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, or other Labor Department personnel. Information may also be obtained from Government contracting officers and from other available sources, including employees and their representatives and employers and their associations. The determinations may be based on the wage rates and fringe benefits contained in collective bargaining agreements where they have been determined to prevail in a locality for specified occupational class(es) of employees. (b) Determination of prevailing rates. Where a single rate is paid to a majority (50 percent or more) of the workers in a class of service employees engaged in similar work in a particular locality, that rate is determined to prevail. The wage rates and fringe benefits in a collective bargaining agreement covering 2,001 janitors in a locality, for example, prevail if it is determined that no more than 4,000 workers are engaged in such janitorial work in that locality. In the case of information developed from surveys, statistical measurements of central tendency such as a median (a point in a distribution of wage rates where 50 percent of the surveyed workers receive that or a higher rate and an equal number receive a lesser rate) or the mean (average) are considered reliable indicators of the prevailing rate. Which of these statistical measurements will be applied in a given case will be determined after a careful analysis of the overall survey, separate classification data, patterns existing between survey periods, and the way the separate classification data interrelate. Use of the median is the general rule. However, the mean (average) rate may be used in situations where, after analysis, it is determined that the median is not a reliable indicator. Examples where the mean may be used include situations where: (1) The number of workers studied for the job classification constitutes a relatively small sample and the computed median results in an actual rate that is paid to few of the studied workers in the class; (2) Statistical deviation such as a skewed (bimodal or multimodal) frequency distribution biases the median rate due to large concentrations of workers toward either end of the distribution curve and the computed median results in an actual rate that is paid to few of the studied workers in the class; or (3) The computed median rate distorts historic wage relationships between job levels within a classification family (i.e., Electronic Technician Classes A, B, and C levels within the Electronic technician classification family), between classifications of different skill levels (i.e., a maintenance electrician as compared with a maintenance carpenter), or, for example, yields a wage movement inconsistent with the pattern shown by the survey overall or with related and/or similarly skilled job classifications. (c) Slotting wage rates. In some instances, a wage survey for a particular locality may result in insufficient data for one or more job classifications that are required in the performance of a contract. Establishment of a prevailing wage rate for certain such classifications may be accomplished through a “slotting” procedure, such as that used under the Federal pay system. Under this procedure, wage rates are derived for a classification based on a comparison of equivalent or similar job duty and skill characteristics between the classifications studied and those for which no survey data is available. As an example, a wage rate found prevailing for the janitorial classification may be adopted for the classification of mess attendant if the skill and duties attributed to each classification are known to be rated similarly under pay classification schemes. (Both classifications are assigned the same wage grade under the Coordinated Federal Wage System and are paid at the Wage Board grade 2 when hired directly by a Federal agency.) (d) Due consideration. In making wage and fringe benefit determinations, section 2(a)(5) of the Act requires that due consideration be given to the rates that would be paid by the Federal agency to the various classes of service employees if section 5341 or section 5332 of title 5 U.S.C., were applicable to them. Section 5341 refers to the Wage Board or Coordinated Federal Wage System for “blue collar” workers and section 5332 refers to the General Schedule pay system for “white collar” workers. The term due consideration implies the exercise of discretion on the basis of the facts and circumstances surrounding each determination, recognizing the legislative objective of narrowing the gap between the wage rates and fringe benefits prevailing for service employees and those established for Federal employees. Each wage determination is based on a survey or other information on the wage rates and fringe benefits being paid in a particular locality and also takes into account those wage rates and fringe benefits which would be paid under Federal pay systems.

29 C.F.R. § 4.52 Fringe benefit determinations.

(a) Wage determinations issued pursuant to the Service Contract Act ordinarily contain provisions for vacation and holiday benefits prevailing in the locality. In addition, wage determinations contain a prescribed minimum rate for all other benefits, such as insurance, pension, etc., which are not required as a matter of law (i.e., excluding Social Security, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation payments and similar statutory benefits), based upon the sum of the benefits contained in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Cost Index (ECI), for all employees in private industry, nationwide (and excluding ECI components for supplemental pay, such as shift differential, which are considered wages rather than fringe benefits under SCA). Pursuant to Section 4(b) of the Act and § 4.123, the Secretary has determined that it is necessary and proper in the public interest, and in accord with remedial purposes of the Act to protect prevailing labor standards, to issue a variation from the Act's requirement that fringe benefits be determined for various classes of service employees in the locality. (b) The minimum rate for all benefits (other than holidays and vacation) which are not legally required, as prescribed in paragraph (a) of this section, shall be phased in over a four-year period beginning June 1, 1997. The first year the rate will be $.90 per hour plus one-fourth of the difference between $.90 per hour and the rate prescribed in paragraph (a) of this section; the second year the rate will be increased by one-third of the difference between the rate set the first year and the rate prescribed; the third year the rate will be increased by one-half of the difference between the rate set in the second year and the rate prescribed; and the fourth year and thereafter the rate will be the rate prescribed in paragraph (a) of this section. (c) Where it is determined pursuant to § 4.51(b) that a single fringe benefit rate is paid with respect to a majority of the workers in a class of service employees engaged in similar work in a locality, that rate will be determined to prevail notwithstanding the rate which would otherwise be prescribed pursuant to this section. Ordinarily, it will be found that a majority of workers receive fringe benefits at a single level where those workers are subject to a collective bargaining agreement whose provisions have been found to prevail in the locality. (d) A significant number of contracts contain a prevailing fringe benefit rate of $2.56 per hour. Generally, these contracts are large base support contracts, contracts requiring competition from large corporations, contracts requiring highly technical services, and contracts solicited pursuant to A-76 procedures (displacement of Federal employees), as well as successor contracts thereto. The $2.56 benefit rate shall continue to be issued for all contracts containing the $2.56 benefit rate, as well as resolicitations and other successor contracts for substantially the same services, until the fringe benefit rate determined in accordance with paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section equals or exceeds $2.56 per hour. (e) Variance procedure. (1) The Department will consider variations requested by contracting agencies pursuant to Section 4(b) of the Act and § 4.123, from the methodology described in paragraph (a) of this section for determining prevailing fringe benefit rates. This variation procedure will not be utilized to routinely permit separate fringe benefit packages for classes of employees and industries, but rather will be limited to the narrow circumstances set forth herein where special needs of contracting agencies require this procedure. Such variations will be considered where the agency demonstrates that because of the special circumstances of the particular industry, the variation is necessary and proper in the public interest or to avoid the serious impairment of government business. Such a demonstration might be made, for example, where an agency is unable to obtain contractors willing to bid on a contract because the service will be performed at the contractor's facility by employees performing work for the Government and other customers, and as a result, paying the required SCA fringe benefits would cause undue disruption to the contractor's own work force and pay practices. (2) It will also be necessary for the agency to demonstrate that a variance is in accordance with the remedial purpose of the Act to protect prevailing labor standards, by providing comprehensive data from a valid survey demonstrating the prevailing fringe benefits for the specific industry. If the agency does not continue to provide current data in subsequent years, the variance will be withdrawn and the rate prescribed in paragraph (a) of this section will be issued for the contract.

29 C.F.R. § 4.53 Collective bargaining agreement (successorship) determinations.

Determinations based on the collective bargaining agreement of a predecessor contractor set forth by job classification each provision relating to wages (such as the established straight time hourly or salary rate, cost-of-living allowance, and any shift, hazardous, and other similar pay differentials) and to fringe benefits (such as holiday pay, vacation pay, sick leave pay, life, accidental death, disability, medical, and dental insurance plans, retirement or pension plans, severance pay, supplemental unemployment benefits, saving and thrift plans, stock-option plans, funeral leave, jury/witness leave, or military leave) contained in the predecessor's collective bargaining agreement, as well as conditions governing the payment of such wages and fringe benefits. Accrued wages and fringe benefits and prospective increases therein are also included. Each wage determination is limited in application to a specific contract succeeding a contract which had been performed in the same locality by a contractor with a collective bargaining agreement, and contains a notice to prospective bidders regarding their obligations under section 4(c) of the Act.

29 C.F.R. § 4.54 Locality basis of wage and fringe benefit determinations.

(a) Under section 2(a) of the Act, the Secretary or his authorized representative is given the authority to determine the minimum monetary wages and fringe benefits prevailing for various classes of service employees “in the locality”. Although the term locality has reference to a geographic area, it has an elastic and variable meaning and contemplates consideration of the existing wage structures which are pertinent to the employment of particular classes of service employees on the varied kinds of service contracts. Because wage structures are extremely varied, there can be no precise single formula which would define the geographic limits of a “locality” that would be relevant or appropriate for the determination of prevailing wage rates and prevailing fringe benefits in all situations under the Act. The locality within which a wage or fringe benefit determination is applicable is, therefore, defined in each such determination upon the basis of all the facts and circumstances pertaining to that determination. Locality is ordinarily limited geographically to a particular county or cluster of counties comprising a metropolitan area. For example, a survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Baltimore, Maryland Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area includes the counties of Baltimore, Harford, Howard, Anne Arundel, and the City of Baltimore. A wage determination based on such information would define locality as the same geographic area included within the scope of the survey. Locality may also be defined as, for example, a city, a State, or, under rare circumstances, a region, depending on the actual place or places of contract performance, the geographical scope of the data on which the determination was based, the nature of the services being contracted for, and the procurement method used. In addition, in Southern Packaging & Storage Co. v. United States, 618 F.2d 1088 (4th Cir. 1980), the court held that a nationwide wage determination normally is not permissible under the Act, but postulated that “there may be the rare and unforeseen service contract which might be performed at locations throughout the country and which would generate truly nationwide competition”. (b) Where the services are to be performed for a Federal agency at the site of the successful bidder, in contrast to services to be performed at a specific Federal facility or installation, or in the locality of such installation, the location where the work will be performed often cannot be ascertained at the time of bid advertisement or solicitation. In such instances, wage determinations will generally be issued for the various localities identified by the agency as set forth in § 4.4(a)(3)(i). (c) Where the wage rates and fringe benefits contained in a collective bargaining agreement applicable to the predecessor contract are set forth in a determination, locality in such a determination is typically described as the geographic area in which the predecessor contract was performed. The determination applies to any successor contractor which performs the contract in the same locality. However, see § 4.163(i).

29 C.F.R. § 4.55 Issuance and revision of wage determinations.

(a) Determinations will be reviewed periodically and where prevailing wage rates or fringe benefits have changed, such changes will be reflected in revised determinations. For example, in a locality where it is determined that the wage rate which prevails for a particular class of service employees is the rate specified in a collective bargaining agreement(s) applicable in that locality, and such agreement(s) specifies increases in such rates to be effective on specific dates, the determinations would be revised to reflect such changes as they become effective. Revised determinations shall be applicable to contracts in accordance with the provisions of § 4.5(a) of subpart A. (b) Determinations issued by the Wage and Hour Division with respect to particular contracts are required to be incorporated in the invitations for bids or requests for proposals or quotations issued by the contracting agencies, and are to be incorporated in the contract specifications in accordance with § 4.5 of subpart A. In this manner, prospective contractors and subcontractors are advised of the minimum monetary wages and fringe benefits required under the most recently applicable determination to be paid the service employees who perform the contract work. These requirements are the same for all bidders so none will be placed at a competitive disadvantage. (c) Determinations issued by the Wage and Hour Division with respect to particular contracts are required to be incorporated in the invitations for bids or requests for proposals or quotations issued by the contracting agencies, and are to be incorporated in the contract specifications in accordance with § 4.5 of subpart A. In this manner, prospective contractors and subcontractors are advised of the minimum monetary wages and fringe benefits required under the most recently applicable determination to be paid the service employees who perform the contract work. These requirements are, of course, the same for all bidders so none will be placed at a competitive disadvantage.

29 C.F.R. § 4.56 Review and reconsideration of wage determinations.

(a) Review by the Administrator. (1) Any interested party affected by a wage determination issued under section 2(a) of the Act may request review and reconsideration by the Administrator. A request for review and reconsideration may be made by the contracting agency or other interested party, including contractors or prospective contractors and associations of contractors, representatives of employees, and other interested Governmental agencies. Any such request must be accompanied by supporting evidence. In no event shall the Administrator review a wage determination or its applicability after the opening of bids in the case of a competitively advertised procurement, or, later than 10 days before commencement of a contract in the case of a negotiated procurement, exercise of a contract option or extension. This limitation is necessary in order to ensure competitive equality and an orderly procurement process. (2) The Administrator shall, upon receipt of a request for reconsideration, review the data sources relied upon as a basis for the wage determination, the evidence furnished by the party requesting review or reconsideration, and, if necessary to resolve the matter, any additional information found to be relevant to determining prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits in a particular locality. The Administrator, pursuant to a review of available information, may issue a new wage determination, may cause the wage determination to be revised, or may affirm the wage determination issued, and will notify the requesting party in writing of the action taken. The Administrator will render a decision within 30 days of receipt of the request or will notify the requesting party in writing within 30 days of receipt that additional time is necessary. (b) Review by the Administrative Review Board. Any decision of the Administrator under paragraph (a) of this section may be appealed to the Administrative Review Board within 20 days of issuance of the Administrator's decision. Any such appeal shall be in accordance with the provisions of part 8 of this title.

Starting a business? Corpus forms LLCs in all 50 states and DC.