OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
HB-6378
AN ACT CODIFYING PREVAILING WAGE CONTRACT RATES.
Primary Analyst: CW 3/8/21
Contributing Analyst(s): DD, JS
Reviewer: MM
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 22 $ FY 23 $
Labor Dept. GF - Cost 199,200 206,829
State Comptroller - Fringe
Benefits
1
GF - Cost 82,269 85,420
Various State Agencies GF - See Below See Below See Below
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 22 $ FY 23 $
Various Municipalities See Below See Below See Below
Explanation
The bill modifies the method by which the Department of Labor
(DOL) is required to determine the prevailing wage for certain trades
and occupations for building, heavy, and highway projects. It requires
the DOL to use wage rates set in certain collective bargaining
agreements and eliminates the option for the DOL to adopt the rates
set by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL), except when
there is no collective bargaining agreement for a trade or occupation in
the town.
It is the current practice of the DOL to adopt prevailing wage rates
1
The fringe benefit costs for most state employees are budgeted centrally in accounts
administered by the Comptroller. The estimated active employee fringe benefit cost
associated with most personnel changes is 41.3% of payroll in FY 22 and FY 23. 2021HB-06378-R000025-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 2
set by the USDOL.
2
Any change in the cost of state and municipal
contracts affected by the prevailing wage would depend on how the
wage rates determined through the method required under the bill
differ from the USDOL rates.
The bill results in a cost of $281,469 in FY 22 and $292,249 in FY 23
for two full-time Wage Enforcement Agents and one part-time Staff
Attorney to research, analyze, establish, and publish prevailing wage
rates in all 169 municipalities annually as required by the methodology
in the bill. This includes salary and fringe costs.
In FY 20, there were 1,000 state, municipal, and private construction
projects subject to prevailing wage requirements.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to inflation.
2
Current law allows the labor commissioner to set prevailing wage rates in one of
two ways: (1) through holding a hearing to determine the prevailing wage rates on
any public work within a specified area and establishing classifications of labor, or
(2) by adopting the federally-determined prevailing wage rates.