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Labor Code §1773.1(a) defines per diem wages as the basic hourly rate plus employer payments for health and welfare, pension, vacation and holiday, apprenticeship or other training, worker protection and assistance programs, and industry advancement and collective bargaining administration — each as set in the Director's determination for that craft and county. Cash-only fails because the fringe components are part of the required total, not a bonus. There is no flat percentage: the fringe amount comes from the determination, not from arithmetic. And H-2A is a federal farm-labour program with nothing to do with construction public works.

Public Contract Code §2500 lets an awarding body use a project labor agreement so long as the agreement takes bids from union and non-union contractors alike, recognises the workers' right to choose representation, bars strikes and lockouts, sets a dispute procedure, and binds every contractor and subcontractor on the project. A PLA is therefore neither prohibited nor limited to federal work. Nor is it compulsory at any dollar figure: the choice belongs to the awarding body. Section 2503 goes the other way, conditioning state construction funding for charter cities that forbid project labor agreements.

Under Labor Code §1771 and §1720, prevailing wages must be paid on public works projects over $1,000. (A narrow exception allows a $15,000/$25,000 threshold only for certain projects when a local agency has an approved labor compliance program.) The general trigger is the $1,000 threshold.

Labor Code §1770 and §1773 charge the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations with determining the general prevailing rate of per diem wages for each craft and locality. The U.S. Department of Labor sets Davis-Bacon rates, but those govern federally funded contracts, not California public works. The awarding body files the project notice and withholds for violations; it has no power to set the rate by resolution. Union dispatch rates are data the Director may weigh, not the determination itself.

Labor Code §1725.5 requires a contractor or subcontractor to register with the DIR, and pay the annual fee, before it may bid on, be listed on a bid for, or perform public work subject to prevailing wage. The CSLB issues the licence but runs no public works registration or certification, so that option names an agency that has no such programme. A bond of twice the contract amount is not a bidding prerequisite; bonding comes from the call for bids and Civil Code §9550. The Division of Apprenticeship Standards approves apprenticeship programmes, not contractors.

Labor Code §1776(a) requires records showing, for each individual worker, the name, address, social security number, work classification, straight-time and overtime hours worked each day and week, and the actual per diem wages paid, verified under penalty of perjury. Crew or trade totals fail because the record is per worker per day, not per crew. Contract price, change orders and retention are accounting for the contract, not payroll for the workers. The awarding body's payment dates belong to the progress-payment record, not to the certified payroll.

Labor Code §1777.5 requires the contractor to request dispatch from an approved apprenticeship programme, employ apprentices at the required ratio, and make training fund contributions. Davis-Bacon apprentice rules apply to federally funded work; California public works run on §1777.5. The CSLB issues no apprenticeship endorsement, so there is nothing to obtain. One apprentice per journeyman per shift overstates the duty twice over: 8 CCR §230.1 sets one hour of apprentice work for every five journeyman hours, and measures it over the whole project rather than shift by shift.

Labor Code §1741 authorises the Labor Commissioner, who heads the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement inside the DIR, to issue a civil wage and penalty assessment after investigating a prevailing wage violation. The Division of Apprenticeship Standards polices the §1777.5 apprenticeship duties, a separate programme with its own penalties. The CSLB disciplines licences and may act on a §7110 referral, but it does not assess wages or §1775 penalties. The Attorney General may litigate on the state's behalf but issues no assessment.

Public property cannot be sold to satisfy a private claim, so no mechanics lien attaches to it. The substitutes are the direct contractor's payment bond under Civil Code §9550 and the stop payment notice against undisbursed public funds under Civil Code §9352. A notice of non-responsibility is a private-works device by which an owner disclaims work ordered by a tenant; it protects the owner and pays nobody. Builder's risk insures the work against physical loss and answers no invoice.

The federal Miller Act and the state Little Miller Acts, including Civil Code §9550, require the prime contractor to furnish a payment bond protecting subcontractors and suppliers and, on most projects, a performance bond protecting the public agency. Builder's risk covers physical damage to the work and answers no payment claim. A lien waiver runs from the claimant to the owner; it is not something the public agency issues. The bid bond does its work at award and is discharged once the contract and the required bonds are executed.

Public agencies typically must award to the lowest responsible, responsive bidder. 'Responsive' means the bid conforms to the solicitation; 'responsible' means the bidder is qualified and capable. This process promotes fairness and stewardship of public funds.

Labor Code §1775(a) makes the contractor pay the difference between what was paid and the prevailing rate, and adds a civil penalty of up to $200 for each worker for each calendar day of underpayment. Nothing in the statute offers a first-offense warning. Licence revocation is a CSLB proceeding under B&P §7110 that may follow, but it is neither automatic nor what §1775 imposes. Forfeiting the contract price is not a prevailing wage remedy; under §1726 the awarding body withholds only the assessed amounts.

Labor Code §1720(a)(1) defines public works as construction, alteration, demolition, installation or repair work done under contract and paid for in whole or in part out of public funds. The $1,000 figure in §1771 is the threshold above which prevailing wages are owed, not the definition of public works. Public ownership of the land is not the test either: a privately funded project on public land can fall outside it, while a privately owned project built with a public subsidy can fall inside. Work a public agency performs with its own forces is expressly outside §1771.

Labor Code §1776(b) makes certified payroll available for inspection and furnishes certified copies on request to the employee, to a representative of the body awarding the contract, and to the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, which the Labor Commissioner heads inside the DIR. Designers and inspectors administer the work, not the payroll. The public may request records, but §1776(e) requires the worker's name, address and social security number to be obliterated first, so unredacted public access is wrong. The county recorder takes recorded notices; payroll is never filed there.

Labor Code §1725.5 requires every contractor and subcontractor on covered public work to be registered before it is listed on a bid, awarded work, or allowed to perform, and §1725.5(e) makes an unregistered listing grounds to treat the bid as nonresponsive. The prime-only reading ignores that the statute names subcontractors expressly. Registering later does not cure the defect, because the duty attaches at bid listing. Registration is the contractor's own filing with the DIR; no awarding body registers a firm on its behalf.

Labor Code §1773.1(a) defines per diem wages as the basic hourly rate plus employer payments for health and welfare, pension, vacation and holiday, apprenticeship or other training, worker protection committees, and industry advancement funds. There is no flat percentage: the fringe amounts come from the Director's determination for that craft and county. Travel and subsistence are a separate §1773.8 obligation and do not stand in for the fringe package. Overhead is the contractor's own money and is never credited against what the worker is owed.

A bid bond guarantees only that the successful bidder will execute the contract and post the payment and performance bonds the call for bids requires; if it walks away, the surety covers the agency's cost of going to the next bidder. Freedom from defects is what a maintenance or warranty bond promises. Prevailing wage payment is backed by the payment bond and by §1726 withholding, not by the bid bond. DIR registration of listed subs is verified from the bid itself, and no bond guarantees it.

Labor Code §1777.7 sets a civil penalty of up to $100 for each full calendar day of noncompliance, rising to $300 a day for a knowing second violation within three years, and §1777.1(d)(1) lets the Labor Commissioner deny the right to bid on or perform public work for up to one year, or up to three for a repeat. DIR registration is a separate duty and is not forfeited for an apprenticeship breach. No statute raises the contract price to pay for a compliance failure. The CSLB may discipline a licence after a referral, but nothing about that is automatic.

Labor Code §1777.1 makes a debarred contractor, and firms in which it holds an interest, ineligible to bid on, be awarded, or perform as a subcontractor on a public works project for a fixed term, generally one to three years. The licence itself is untouched: a debarred contractor may keep working private jobs, which is why the CSLB option is wrong. Debarment runs for a stated period and then ends, so permanent removal overstates it. No statute doubles the wage rate as a penalty; §1775 adds a per-worker, per-day penalty instead.

Labor Code §1742(a) gives a contractor served with a civil wage and penalty assessment 60 days to file a written request for review, which is heard inside the DIR before any court sees it. The CSLB has no jurisdiction over a prevailing wage assessment. Going straight to superior court fails because the administrative remedy must be exhausted first; §1742(c) provides for review of the hearing decision by writ. Paying under protest and suing the awarding body targets the wrong party, since the assessment is the Labor Commissioner's.

A bid that misses a material requirement of the solicitation is nonresponsive and may be rejected however low it is; failing to acknowledge an addendum and omitting the subcontractor listing required by Public Contract Code §4104 are both material. An alternate bid is a priced option the agency itself invited, not a defective base bid. Calling it the lowest responsible bid confuses responsibility, which is about the bidder's capacity, with responsiveness, which is about the bid document. An agency may waive only an immaterial irregularity, and an omitted sub list is not one.

The Subletting and Subcontracting Fair Practices Act makes the prime name, in its bid, every subcontractor whose work exceeds one-half of one percent of the total bid, so the prime cannot shop those prices down after award or let rivals peddle lower ones in. Prevailing wage duties come from Labor Code §1771 and apply whether or not a sub is listed. Self-performance is not restricted by the Act; listing is required only for work actually subcontracted. Licensing is policed by the CSLB and by §4104's licence-number requirement, which is a detail of listing rather than its purpose.

Labor Code §1771 excepts only public works of $1,000 or less, so a $50,000 city sidewalk job carries the full prevailing wage obligation for every covered worker, at the rates the DIR Director has determined for that craft and county. Repair is named in the definition of public works, so it earns no minimum-wage treatment. Apprentices are paid their own prevailing rate, but so is every journeyman. The $25,000 figure is real but belongs elsewhere: §1771.5(a) lets an awarding body with an approved labor compliance programme skip prevailing wage on construction of $25,000 or less, and $15,000 or less for alteration, demolition, repair or maintenance.

Labor Code §1776(h) gives the contractor 10 days after a written request and then forfeits $100 for each calendar day, or part of one, for each worker, until strict compliance; those penalties are withheld from progress payments at the Division's request. Withholding is limited to the penalty amount, so the whole progress payment is not lost. Nothing about a records failure extends the completion date. The CSLB is not the assessing body here, and it is not the only one that can act: on a DIR-monitored job §1771.4(a)(3)(B) adds its own $100-a-day penalty, capped at $5,000 for the project.

On a federally funded construction contract above the statutory threshold, the Davis-Bacon Act requires the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits determined by the U.S. Department of Labor. California's Labor Code prevailing wage scheme attaches to state and local public works; it does not travel onto a federal project merely because the work is in California. Article 2 of the Commercial Code governs sales of goods and says nothing about wages. B&P §7108 concerns diversion of funds by a licensee, not wage rates.

The performance bond names the public agency as obligee and guarantees that the work will be completed according to the contract; if the contractor defaults, the surety arranges completion or pays damages up to the penal sum. Unpaid subs and suppliers look instead to the payment bond required by Civil Code §9550 and to a stop payment notice. A surety bond is not insurance for the principal: it never indemnifies the contractor against its own defective work, and the surety may seek reimbursement from the contractor after paying. Delay damages against the agency are a contract claim, not a bond promise.

Labor Code §1725.5 makes DIR public works registration an annual registration with an annual fee, and it must be current at the moment the contractor bids, is listed on a bid, is awarded work, or performs. A CSLB licence is a separate requirement and waives nothing. A one-time registration would defeat the annual fee the statute imposes. Registration attaches to the contractor, not to the job, so one current registration covers every covered project rather than being repeated contract by contract.

Because public property cannot be liened, the unpaid subcontractor's security is the prime's payment bond: it must give any preliminary notice its position requires and then sue on the bond, which Civil Code §9558 allows any time after it stops work but no later than six months after the stop-notice period in §9356 closes. Recording a lien against the school or city building is void from the start. Retention is money owed the prime under the prime contract, not a fund the agency pays claimants from. No agency consent is needed or available; the bond is a contract with the surety.

Labor Code §1773.1 lets the employer count payments to bona fide health and welfare, pension, vacation and holiday, apprenticeship and training, and similar plans toward the total prevailing wage obligation, so long as the worker still receives the full package of cash plus creditable benefits. Overhead is the contractor's own cost of doing business and buys the worker nothing. Meals and lodging are not on the §1773.1 list; travel and subsistence are separately owed under §1773.8. The last option states the opposite of the rule: benefits are creditable, which is exactly why §1773.1 exists.

Labor Code §1774 binds the contractor and every subcontractor to pay not less than the prevailing rate, and §1772 covers all workers employed on the public work in covered classifications. The duty is not waivable by silence, so a worker who never asks is still owed it. Union membership and dispatch are irrelevant: the rate is set by craft and county, not by who hired the worker. Confining it to the prime's own payroll is the error §1774 exists to prevent, since most public works labour is performed by subcontractors.

Competitive sealed bidding exists to spend public money economically and to give every qualified bidder the same shot, which is why the award goes to the lowest responsible, responsive bidder on published criteria. It does not remove the bonding requirements, which come from the call for bids and Civil Code §9550 and apply on top of it. Discretion to pick a favourite is the very thing the process removes. Wage rates are fixed by the DIR determination under Labor Code §1773 whatever bidding method is used, and they are not union rates by definition.

Public Contract Code §20166 lets an awarding body reject any and all bids, and agencies reserve that right in the call for bids; the usual grounds are that every bid exceeds the budget, that all are nonresponsive, or that rebidding better serves the public. An apprenticeship committee has no voice in the award. The low bidder's consent is not required, because rejection is the agency's decision, not a negotiation. The last option inverts the rule: soliciting bids creates no duty to award a contract.

On a monitored project the records go to the LABOR COMMISSIONER, in electronic format, in the manner prescribed on the department's website, at least once every 30 days while work continues and once more within 30 days of the last day worked. Sending them to the awarding body is not the whole duty. Section 1771.4 sets the penalty for failing to furnish them at $100 per day, not to exceed a total of $5,000 per project. The per-worker, uncapped $100 a day is a different penalty, in §1776(h), for failing to produce records on request.

Section 1813 forfeits $25 for EACH WORKER for EACH CALENDAR DAY on which that worker is required or permitted to work more than 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week without the overtime pay §1815 requires. Three workers across four days is twelve worker-days, and twelve times $25 is $300. The forfeiture is counted per worker per day, not per day and not per overtime hour, and it is separate from the wages still owed. The $200 figure is the ceiling in §1775 for underpaying the prevailing wage, which is a different violation.

Civil Code §9550 requires a direct contractor awarded a public works contract involving an expenditure in excess of $25,000 to give a PAYMENT bond before commencement of work, and §9554(a) requires that bond to be executed by an admitted surety insurer. The payment bond exists precisely because public property cannot be liened: it stands behind the workers, subcontractors and suppliers who have no lien to record. A performance bond answers to the awarding body for completion of the work, which is a different promise to a different party.

Civil Code §9356 gives 30 days after recordation of a notice of completion, acceptance or cessation. Recording such a notice SHORTENS the window from 90 days to 30; it never extends it, so April 10 plus 30 days is May 10. Section 9358(a) then makes the duty mandatory rather than discretionary: on receipt the public entity SHALL withhold sufficient funds due or to become due the direct contractor to pay the claim stated in the notice, plus its reasonable cost of any litigation. Six months after the stop-notice period closes is the separate deadline for an action on the payment bond.