(a) This chapter shall apply to every contract in excess of $2,000 for construction of a public work project to which a governmental contracting agency is a party; provided that this chapter shall not apply to experimental and demonstration housing developed pursuant to section 46-15 or housing developed pursuant to chapter 201H if the cost of the project is less than $500,000 and the eligible bidder or eligible developer is a private nonprofit corporation.
For the purposes of this subsection:
“Contract” includes but is not limited to any agreement, purchase order, or voucher in excess of $2,000 for construction of a public work project.
“Governmental contracting agency” includes:
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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 104-2 v2
- Basic hourly rate: means the hourly wage paid to a laborer or mechanic for work performed during nonovertime hours, but shall not include the cost to an employer of furnishing fringe benefits, whether paid directly or indirectly to the laborer or mechanic as provided in the definition of "wages". See Hawaii Revised Statutes 104-1
- Construction: includes alteration, repair, painting, and decorating. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 104-1
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Contractor: means any person furnishing construction for a public work under a contract with a governmental contracting agency, subcontractor, or any other person under a subcontract arrangement with any person who has a construction contract subject to this chapter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 104-1
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Department: means the department of labor and industrial relations. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 104-1
- Director: means the director of labor and industrial relations of the State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 104-1
- Governmental contracting agency: means the State, any county and any officer, bureau, board, commission, or other agency or instrumentality thereof. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 104-1
- Overtime compensation: means compensation based on not less than one and one-half times the laborers or mechanics basic hourly rate of pay plus the cost to an employer of furnishing a laborer or mechanic with fringe benefits as described in the definition of "wages"; provided that if the department determines that a prevailing wage is defined by a collective bargaining agreement, the overtime compensation shall be at the rates set by the applicable collective bargaining agreement. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 104-1
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Public work: means any project, including development of any housing pursuant to § 46-15 or chapter 201H and development, construction, renovation, and maintenance related to refurbishment of any real or personal property, where the funds or resources required or used to undertake the project are to any extent derived, either directly or indirectly, from public revenues of the State or any county, or from the sale of securities or bonds whose interest or dividends are exempt from state or federal taxes. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 104-1
“Party” includes eligible bidders for and eligible developers of any public work and any housing under chapter 201H; provided that this subsection shall not apply to any housing developed under § 46-15 or chapter 201H if the entire cost of the project is less than $500,000 and the eligible bidder or eligible developer is a private nonprofit corporation.
(b) Every laborer and mechanic performing work on the job site for the construction of any public work project shall be paid no less than prevailing wages; provided that:
(1) The prevailing wages shall be established by the director as the sum of the basic hourly rate and the cost to an employer of providing a laborer or mechanic with fringe benefits. In making prevailing wage determinations, the following shall apply:
(A) The director shall make separate findings of:
(i) The basic hourly rate; and
(ii) The rate of contribution or cost of fringe benefits paid by the employer when the payment of the fringe benefits by the employer constitutes a prevailing practice. The cost of fringe benefits shall be reflected in the wage rate scheduled as an hourly rate; and
(B) The rates of wages which the director shall regard as prevailing in each corresponding classification of laborers and mechanics shall be the rate of wages paid to the greatest number of those employed in the State, the modal rate, in the corresponding classes of laborers or mechanics on projects that are similar to the contract work;
(2) The prevailing wages shall be not less than the wages payable under federal law to corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics employed on public works projects in the State that are prosecuted under contract or agreement with the government of the United States; and
(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of the original contract, the prevailing wages shall be periodically adjusted during the performance of the contract in an amount equal to the change in the prevailing wage as periodically determined by the director.
(c) No laborer or mechanic employed on the job site of any public work of the State or any political subdivision thereof shall be permitted or required to work on Saturday, Sunday, or a legal holiday of the State or in excess of eight hours on any other day unless the laborer or mechanic receives overtime compensation for all hours worked on Saturday, Sunday, and a legal holiday of the State or in excess of eight hours on any other day. The rate for overtime compensation and any other premium rates of pay shall be those rates specified in an applicable collective bargaining agreement when the basic hourly rate is established by a collective bargaining agreement.
For purposes of determining overtime compensation under this subsection, the basic hourly rate of any laborer or mechanic shall not be less than the basic hourly rate determined by the director to be the prevailing basic hourly rate for corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics on projects of similar character in the State.
(d) The contractor or the contractor’s subcontractor shall pay all mechanics and laborers employed on the job site, unconditionally and not less often than once a week, and without deduction or rebate on any account, except as allowed by law, the full amounts of their wages including overtime, accrued to not more than five working days prior to the time of payment, at wage rates not less than those deemed to be prevailing, regardless of any contractual relationship which may be alleged to exist between the contractor or subcontractor and the laborers and mechanics. The rates of wages to be paid shall be posted by the contractor in a prominent and easily accessible place at the job site, and a copy of the rates of wages required to be posted shall be given to each laborer and mechanic employed under the contract by the contractor at the time each laborer and mechanic is employed, except that where there is a collective bargaining agreement the contractor does not have to provide the contractor’s employees the wage rate schedules.
(e) The governmental contracting agency may withhold from the contractor so much of the accrued payments as the governmental contracting agency may consider necessary to pay to the laborers and mechanics employed by the contractor or any subcontractor on the job site the difference between the prevailing wages and the wages received and not refunded by the laborers and mechanics.
(f) Every contract in excess of $2,000 for construction of a public work project and the specifications for such contract shall include provisions that set forth the requirements of subsections (a) to (e); provided that failure by the contracting agency to include those provisions in the contract or specifications shall not be a defense of the contractor or subcontractor for noncompliance with the requirements of this chapter.
(g) For any public work project that is subject to this chapter but not directly caused by a governmental contracting agency, the director shall be responsible for enforcement of this chapter, including the collection and maintenance of certified copies of all payrolls that are subject to this chapter. The director shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 to effectuate the purposes of this section.
(h) When:
(1) The department of budget and finance enters a project agreement with a project party, as those terms are defined in chapter 39A, to finance or refinance a project with the proceeds of special purpose revenue bonds;
(2) The project party has entered into a collective bargaining agreement with a bona fide labor union governing the project party’s workforce; and
(3) The collective bargaining agreement has been properly submitted to the director under § 104-34, the terms of the collective bargaining agreement and associated provisions shall be deemed the prevailing wages and terms serving as the basis of compliance with this chapter for work on the project by the project party’s workforce; provided that this subsection does not affect the director’s enforcement powers contained in subsection (g).
