I am a contractor that works for commercial use. Someone wants me to work on the Water and Power and I want to make sure I am following the procedure correctly and paying everyone accordingly.
1 reply
Dec 18, 2019
It sounds like you may be asking whether prevailing wages and bonds might be required on Water and Power projects in California? If that's not the case, feel free to respond to this question with additional detail for better clarity.
Prevailing wages and California public works
Anyway, prevailing wages are required for all California public works projects - and they apply to a broad array of projects which, on their face, may not even seem like strictly public works jobs. For a little more background there, this article may be helpful (and, apologies if you came from this page): Understanding California Prevailing Wage Requirements & Rules.
On prevailing wage jobs, there will generally be more overhead involved due to the requirement for paying those wages and due to the additional bookkeeping and compliance work that might come into play. But, admittedly, I'm not an expert on California prevailing wage compliance, so seeking out a prevailing wage consultant to ask about relevant requirements and procedures could help to see if that's an actual roadblock/ obstacle, or if it's something more manageable.
Bonding on California public works jobs
Generally, public works projects also require payment and performance bonds. Payment bonds to ensure that any and all subs and suppliers can secure payment if things go south, and performance bonds to ensure the project is completed even if the contractor can't do it themselves. Securing these bonds adds some upfront costs to public works jobs, but clearly doing so is worthwhile for a large number of contractors since there are always contractors accepting these jobs.
But, before stressing over bonds or pricing them out, it'd probably be a good idea to consult with the contracting agency to see whether they'd be required at all. For certain projects, or for projects under $25,000, bonds won't be required or bonding requirements may be waived. So, asking the would-be customer about whether bonds would be needed could be helpful, too.
Additional resources for contractors moving to public works jobs