Davis-Bacon Fringe Benefits: Cash, Benefits and Overtime

How the fringe can be paid

The fringe amount can be met by contributions to bona fide benefit plans, by paying the amount as cash on the paycheck, or by any combination that adds up to the hourly figure. Plans that count include health insurance, pensions, vacation and holiday pay, life and disability insurance, and approved apprenticeship programs, whether the contractor runs them or pays into a fund. Benefits the law already requires, such as Social Security, unemployment insurance and workers' compensation, do not count.

A contractor who pays part of the fringe in cash owes the cash for every hour worked, including overtime hours. When a plan also covers the contractor's private work, the contributions have to be annualized: credit is the plan's cost per hour across all the hours the worker works, not just the Davis-Bacon hours.

Percentages and footnotes

Most fringes are printed in dollars per hour. Some are a percentage of the basic rate, and some carry a footnote letter that adds paid holidays, vacation pay or similar benefits on top of the printed amount. The pages here print the percentage as the dollar amount it works out to, and keep the footnote with the row.

Overtime

The Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act applies to most Davis-Bacon contracts and requires one and a half times the basic rate for hours over forty in a week. The fringe amount is not multiplied: it is paid at the straight rate for every hour, including overtime hours. A worker at $40 basic and $20 fringe who works 45 hours is owed 40 × $40 plus 5 × $60 in wages and 45 × $20 in fringe, or $1,400 plus $900, paid as benefits, cash or both.

Apprentices and helpers

Apprentices registered in a program approved by the Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship or a recognized state agency may be paid the percentage of the journey-level rate their program sets for their stage, with fringe as the program or the determination provides, and only in the ratio of apprentices to journey workers the program allows. Anyone outside a registered program, or above the ratio, is owed the full journey-level rate. Helper classifications are paid only where the determination lists them.

Rates printed per day

A handful of classifications, divers in particular, are printed per day instead of per hour, and the determination's block says so. The county pages label those rows per day and leave them out of the hourly comparisons.