2015 Legislation
The State Legislature is back to work and follows is a recent introduction:
AB 251 by Assemblyman Marc Levine would trigger prevailing wages if a public subsidy is both less than $25,000 and less than 1% of the total project cost. The bill would specify that those provisions do not apply to a project that was advertised for bid, or a contract that was awarded, before January 1, 2016.
Last year Governor Brown vetoed AB 302 finding, “This measure seeks to codify a definition of the term ‘de minimus’ for purposes of what level of public subsidy triggers prevailing wage requirements on an otherwise private project. Longstanding practice has been to view the subsidy in context of the project and use 2% as a general threshold for determinations. By codifying a standard that establishes ‘de minimus’ as less than 1% and less than $25,000 few, if any, projects receiving public subsidies will be found to be exempt from prevailing wage requirements. While I remain a staunch supporter of prevailing wages and the associated quality work and good paying jobs, I am concerned that this measure is too restrictive. Finally, there has been no showing that the current practice is unreasonable.”
OFCCP issues proposed regulations updating sex discrimination rules
Updating 40-year old federal contractor sex discrimination guidelines, on January 30th, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published proposed updated sex discrimination guidelines in the Federal Register. The proposed regulations, which the OFCCP estimates would cover 65 million employees, set forth updated requirements that covered federal government contractors and subcontractors must meet in fulfilling their nondiscrimination and affirmative action obligations on the basis of sex under Executive Order 11246 (E.O. 11246), as amended.