公共工程
86 道题《劳工法》第1773.1(a)条把「按日工资」定义为基本小时工资率,加上雇主为健康与福利、养老金、休假与节假日、学徒或其他培训、工人保护与援助计划、行业发展与集体谈判事务管理所支付的款项——各项金额均以部长对该工种和该县的工资决定为准。只付现金不成立,因为福利部分是应付总额的组成部分,不是额外奖励。也不存在固定百分比:福利金额来自工资决定,而不是靠算术得出。H-2A 则是联邦的农业劳工项目,与建筑类公共工程毫无关系。
Labor Code §1773.1(a)《公共合同法》第2500条允许授予合同的机构使用工程劳资协议(PLA),只要该协议对工会与非工会承包商一视同仁地接受投标、承认工人自行选择代表的权利、禁止罢工与闭厂、设有争议处理程序,并对项目上所有承包商和分包商具有约束力。因此 PLA 既未被禁止,也不限于联邦工程。它也不是达到某个金额就强制适用:是否采用由授予合同的机构决定。第2503条则从另一方向着手,对禁止使用 PLA 的宪章城市附加州建设资金的条件。
Public Contract Code §2500; §2503Under 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 §1720Labor 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 §1770; §1773Labor 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 §1725.5Labor 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 §1776(a)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 §1777.5; 8 CCR §230.1Labor 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.
Labor Code §1741; §1742Public 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.
Civil Code §9550; §9352The 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.
40 U.S.C. §3131; Civil Code §9550Public 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 §1775(a)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 §1720(a)(1); §1771Labor 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 §1776(b)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 §1725.5(e)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.
Labor Code §1773.1(a)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.
Public Contract Code §20170; Civil Code §9550Labor 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 §1777.7; §1777.1(d)(1)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 §1777.1; §1775Labor 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.
Labor Code §1742(a)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.
Public Contract Code §4104; §4106The 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.
Public Contract Code §4104; §4107Labor 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 §1771; §1771.5(a)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.
Labor Code §1776(h); §1771.4(a)(3)(B)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.
40 U.S.C. §3142 (Davis-Bacon Act)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.
Public Contract Code §20170; Civil Code §9550Labor 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.
Labor Code §1725.5(a)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.
Civil Code §9558; §9356Labor 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 §1773.1(a); §1773.1(d)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.
Labor Code §1774; §1772Competitive 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 §20162; §20166; Labor Code §1773Public 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.
Public Contract Code §20166在受监督的项目上,记录须以电子格式、按劳工部网站规定的方式报送「劳工专员」,施工期间至少每 30 天一次,末次施工日后 30 天内再报送一次。只报给发包机构并不等于履行了全部义务。第 1771.4 条对未报送的处罚是每日 100 美元,每个项目总额不超过 5,000 美元。那种按人头计、没有上限的每日 100 美元是另一项处罚,规定在第 1776(h) 条,针对的是应要求而不出示记录。
Labor Code §1771.4第 1813 条规定,凡要求或允许工人每日工作超过 8 小时、或每周超过 40 小时,而未按第 1815 条支付加班费的,「每名工人、每个日历日」罚没 25 美元。三名工人乘四天等于十二个「人日」,十二乘 25 美元即 300 美元。这项罚金按人头和天数计,既不是按天计,也不是按加班小时计,并且与仍需补付的工资相互独立。题中 200 美元是第 1775 条对少付现行工资的罚款上限,属于另一种违规。
Labor Code §1813; §1775(a)(1)《民法典》第 9550 条要求:获授公共工程合同且支出超过 25,000 美元的直接承包商,须在开工前提供「付款」保证金;第 9554(a) 条要求该保证金由核准的保证保险人签发。付款保证金的存在正是因为公共财产不能被设定留置权——它替那些无法登记留置权的工人、分包商和供应商兜底。履约保证金则是向发包机构担保工程按约完成,那是对另一方作出的另一种承诺。
Civil Code §9550; §9554(a)《民法典》第 9356 条给出的是竣工、验收或停工通知登记后 30 天。登记这类通知会把窗口从 90 天「缩短」为 30 天,绝不会延长,因此 4 月 10 日加 30 天即 5 月 10 日。第 9358(a) 条随后把这项义务定为强制而非裁量:公共机构收到通知后「应当」从应付或将付给直接承包商的款项中,扣留足以支付通知所载债权以及其合理诉讼费用的金额。停付通知期间届满后六个月,是就付款保证金提起诉讼的另一条期限。
Civil Code §9356; §9358(a)