Prevail in knowing when to apply prevailing wage

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By Carrie Cox

To properly apply prevailing wage rates and hours, it is important to understand the nuances of state highway work in determining what is and is not covered for certain workers — especially when it comes to working with aggregates and processed materials.

Knowing when to apply prevailing wages

The prevailing-wage law regarding rates for both state agency and state highway projects still includes language concerning workers engaged in what is essentially preparing and hauling gravel, cement, fill, and other road materials. In addition, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation has further specified what is and is not a mineral aggregate for its projects.

Location, location, location

Workers covered by these sections — laborers, workers, mechanics, and truck drivers — may or may not be subject to prevailing-wage rates depending on the location and type of the work performed. If workers are on the site of a project, they must receive the prevailing wage rates and hours.

If workers are at or doing work associated with a “commercial establishment fixed in location” and supplying processed or manufactured material or product “which is not dedicated exclusively or nearly exclusively with the project,” they are not subject to prevailing-wage rates or hours. However, workers who go to sources of mineral aggregate and deliver that to the project site, and workers who pick up excavated materials from a project site and transport it away, are subject to prevailing wages and hours.

Defining ‘mineral aggregate’

Understanding what constitutes mineral aggregate is important when you are trying to apply prevailing wage rates and hours. The “on-site” and “dedicated exclusively or nearly exclusively” to previsions are fairly easy to manage. Workers at a facility for processing or manufacturing that is not on-site and/or dedicated to a project will not be subject to the prevailing wage rates or hours. However, workers at an off-site material batch plant created solely for a specific highway project are covered under prevailing wages.

So what is a mineral aggregate?

The statute defines mineral aggregate as materials such as sand, gravel, or stone. It might seem simple, but for state highway projects this includes what may look like processed materials because the materials are acted upon before hauling.

WisDOT defines materials like gravel, sand, and stone that are sorted, screened and crushed as mineral aggregates as well. However, WisDOT also includes combining recycled concrete with virgin materials and performing the aforementioned actions.

So gravel or stone sorted and screened remains mineral aggregate and workers associated with this work remain subject to prevailing wages.

Starting point: WisDOT’s chart

WisDOT’s website provides a chart that helps identify when a truck hauling material to a worksite is covered under prevailing wage and hour requirements. The website also provides information on what is not a mineral aggregate, and what is considered a dedicated facility under Wis. Stat. §84.062(2m)(b).

As noted, with respect to work for WisDOT, mineral aggregate is not just the raw material pulled from a pit or quarry. Likewise, graded mineral aggregate material may at first blush appear to be “processed,” but it is not. Conversely, truckers hauling materials from source locations that are not “mineral aggregates,” such as topsoil, dirt, and the like, are not subject to prevailing wage rates and hours.

Understanding those nuances will help you not only comply with the law, but also prepare bids that properly account for these circumstances.