{from an Associated Press article}
A note from Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. – Prevailing Wage requirements also require the submission of “certified payroll reports” on a weekly basis.
Gov’t stimulus projects include wage requirements
By SCOTT BAUER – 23 hours ago
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Welders, bricklayers and other construction workers under the U.S. government’s $787 billion stimulus law would earn significantly higher wages in some areas than crews on private, non-stimulus projects.
Wage rules in the law are a potential bonus to workers’ wallets but they’re upsetting contractors who say it will increase their costs and reduce the numbers of projects that can be funded.
Tucked within the 407-page law is a requirement that laborers and mechanics employed on government stimulus projects be paid “prevailing wages,” which is defined as the salary and fringe benefits for corresponding work on similar projects in the area. The prevailing wage is usually on par with union wages and higher than the average wages for the same category of employees in the same county.
For bricklayers in Madison, for example, the “prevailing wage” is $30.61 per hour but the average bricklayer there earns $25.77 per hour, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Working 40 hours per week over one year, a bricklayer under the prevailing wage would earn $10,000 more. The prevailing wage for cement workers is $29.78 per hour in Madison, compared to the average cement worker wages there of just $20.80 per hour – an annual difference of $18,678.
Major U.S. government construction projects have required contractors to pay prevailing wages since 1931, but the Labor Department has acknowledged that the stimulus law will apply the same wage standard to certain projects that previously weren’t covered. It plans to release new instructions but hasn’t said when that might happen.
“The point of the stimulus was to turn our economy around by creating jobs,” said Jacob Hay, a spokesman for the Laborers International Union of North America, the construction workers union. “That will only happen if the jobs created are good jobs with fair wages that spread paychecks throughout local communities.”
Labor groups – which have overwhelmingly supported President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress who voted for the stimulus law – are pleased. But contractors and home builders said they were worried about rising costs on stimulus projects, including plans to improve the energy efficiency of homes owned by low-income people.
“It’s not clear the full extent to which it will be applied into areas in which it (the prevailing wage) has never been utilized,” said Josh Ulman, a consultant for Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade group.
Another trade group, the National Association of Homebuilders, said it will jack up costs, reducing the number of homes that will benefit from $5 billion in weatherization upgrades. Only a small number of its 200,000 residential homebuilders pay the prevailing wage, spokeswoman Jenna Hamilton said. Most homebuilders aren’t unionized and have never dealt with the prevailing wage requirements, she said.
“It’s hard to tell right now how it’s all going to work,” she said.
{this is a YouTube video forwarded to me by a friend and is just too funny}
(from Public Works Online)
Almost 20% of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be spent on improving the nation’s infrastructure, this means that their will be more and more “public works” construction projects that require certified payroll.
Will you be ready? Will you be in compliance? Do you know what a certified payroll report is or how to fill one out? Check out our Free (upon request) Certified Payroll Training Guide http://www.sunburstsoftwaresolutions.com/component/option,com_performs/formid,5/
Interested in finding out how this money will be spent? Check out Public Works Online Economic Recovery Resource Center at http://www.pwmag.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=0&articleID=878887
(The orginal title was “Laughter for Tax Season” from an accounting goup post)
1. The US has made a new weapon that destroys people but keeps the building standing,. Its called the stock market – - Jay Leno
2. Do you have any idea how cheap stocks are ?? Wall Street is now being called Wal Mart Street. – - Jay Leno
3. The difference between a pigeon and a London investment banker. The pigeon can still make a deposit on a BMW.
4. What’s the difference between a guy who lost everything in Las Vegas and an investment banker?
A tie !
5. The problem with investment bank balance sheet is that on the left side nothing’s right and on the right side nothing’s left.
6. I want to warn people from Nigeria who might be watching our show, if you get any e mails from Washington asking for money, it’s a scam. Don’t fall for it – Jay Leno
7. Bush was asked about the credit crunch. He said it was his favourite candy bar – Jay Leno
8. ! The rescue bill was about 450 pages. President Bush’s copy is even thicker. They had to include pictures . – Jay Leno
9. President Bush’s response was to meet some small business owners in San Antonio last week. The small business owners are General Motors, General Electric and Century 21. – Jay Leno
10. What worries me most about the credit crunch, is that if one of my cheques is returned stamped ‘insufficient funds’. I won’t know whether that refers to mine or the bank’s
NEW STOCK MARKET TERMS
CEO –Chief Embezzlement Officer.
CFO– Corporate Fraud Officer.
BULL MARKET — A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.
BEAR MARKET — A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry.
VALUE INVESTING — The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E RATIO — The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
BROKER — What my broker has made me.
STANDARD & POOR — Your life in a nutshell.
STOCK ANALYST — Idiot who just downgraded your stock.
STOCK SPLIT — When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.
FINANCIAL PLANNER — A guy whose phone has been disconnected.
MARKET CORRECTION — The day after you buy stocks.
CASH FLOW– The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.
YAHOO — What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.
WINDOWS — What you jump out of when you’re the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR — Past year investor who’s now locked up in a nuthouse.
PROFIT — An archaic word no longer in use.
(Thanks to Tracy in Connecticut)
1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
‘If you’re going to kill each other, Do it outside. I just finished cleaning.’
2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
‘You better pray that this will come out of the carpet’
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
‘If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week!’
4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
‘Because I said so, that’s why.’
5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
‘If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you’re not going to the store with me.’
6. My mother taught me about the SCIENCE OF OSMOSIS.
‘Shut your mouth and eat your supper.’
7. My mother taught me about CONTORTION-ISM.
‘Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck?’
8. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
‘You’ll sit there until all that spinach is gone.’
9. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
‘This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it.’
10. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
‘If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times. Don’t exaggerate!’
11. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION.
‘Stop acting like your father.’
12. My mother taught me about ENVY.
‘There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don’t have wonderful parents like you do.’
13. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
‘Just wait until we get home.’
14. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
‘If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way.’
15. My mother taught me HUMOUR.
‘When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don’t come running to me.’
16. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.
‘If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up …’
17. My mother taught me GENETICS.
‘You’re just like your father.’
18. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
‘Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?’
19. My mother taught me WISDOM.
‘When you get to be my age, you’ll understand.’
20. And my favourite: My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
‘One day you’ll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you.’
