# Prevailing Wage Job



## LV Phoneguy (Nov 3, 2016)

Has anyone else been told that they will only pay Comm wage for half the day and pay you laborer wage for the other half of the day?

Or when we run conduit they will pay Electrician wage but comm wage to pull the wire?

I like the pay but I think they are cheating me.

Is this normal in Nevada?


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

LV Phoneguy said:


> Has anyone else been told that they will only pay Comm wage for half the day and pay you laborer wage for the other half of the day?
> 
> Or when we run conduit they will pay Electrician wage but comm wage to pull the wire?
> 
> ...


It's illegal and fairly common in many places over run with corruption and illegal or large unskilled labor pools. I believe the laws are written that one person can't be paid for more than one trade classification on the same jobsite.


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## LV Phoneguy (Nov 3, 2016)

I am pretty new to this stuff, any idea where I could find the rules about this. I want to be sure about this before I say anything.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

I wonder if this is where the hookers in Nevada got the idea of different rates for different types of work .......


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## LuckyLuke (Jun 1, 2015)

That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard of :no:


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Look up the state department of labor prevailing wage for Nevada.


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## TGGT (Oct 28, 2012)

I wonder if Local 357 would be interested in this.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

The low life contractors that do these things and run two sets of books and just use their guys like slave labor really burn my ass. It was guys like that who made me enjoy seeing a salt working behind the scenes in those companies.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

macmikeman said:


> I wonder if this is where the hookers in Nevada got the idea of different rates for different types of work .......


I think they have minimum and maximum prices like cigarettes.


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## Cow (Jan 16, 2008)

I think I'd be trying to find another place to work....


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

I want to pay my men in money that they can only use at my store.


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

HackWork said:


> I want to pay my men in money that they can only use at my store.


Let me guess... Wanna come into my basement and put some risers together?


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## 360max (Jun 10, 2011)

LV Phoneguy said:


> Has anyone else been told that they will only pay Comm wage for half the day and pay you laborer wage for the other half of the day?
> 
> Or when we run conduit they will pay Electrician wage but comm wage to pull the wire?
> 
> ...


#non-uniontrickery


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Cow said:


> I think I'd be trying to find another place to work....


Nice to see the contractor busted, and made to pay all the back pay he owes the guys he ripped off and then a fine and court costs and maybe a few days in jail. Then have the judge turn his records over to the IRS.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

*Nevada*

Office of the Labor Commisioner:

http://labor.nv.gov/


Labor Laws:

http://www.employmentlawhandbook.com/wage-and-hour-laws/state-wage-and-hour-laws/nevada/


Prevailing Wage:

http://labor.nv.gov/PrevailingWage/2015-2016_Prevailing_Wages/


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

we only did pw jobs for the navy, but every base had a GC with a liason that handled all the PW stuff. Don't know what type of work you are doing, but if you are on a base, you should be able to find the office/person you need to find the correct info from. Everyone is allowed to know the correct information, and you can ask questions and find out information before spilling the beans. 

Before you spill the beans, make sure you have another job lined up.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

LV Phoneguy said:


> Has anyone else been told that they will only pay Comm wage for half the day and pay you laborer wage for the other half of the day?
> 
> Or when we run conduit they will pay Electrician wage but comm wage to pull the wire?
> 
> ...


I mean really.
How much could they be saving compared to the hassle of the record keeping and the risk of the scheme backfiring on them?
Its hard to say about the Comm rate if you are a low voltage guy.

Is it possible that they are letting you run the pipe instead of hiring a sub-contractor and paying you more for that work? Trying to do you a favor or something?

The right thing to do would be to refuse to do the conduit work if that isnt your true classification. Make them hire an electrical contractor as a sub.
When they figure out how much that will cost, they might just pay you JW scale and be done with it.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Suncoast Power said:


> I mean really.
> How much could they be saving compared to the hassle of the record keeping and the risk of the scheme backfiring on them?
> Its hard to say about the Comm rate if you are a low voltage guy.
> 
> ...


The last contractor I had seen in the news in NJ had to pay over $1million to his employees in back pay to bring them up to PW. during the jobs he was busted on. If that is any indication of how much a guy can scam on one project site. My employer sub the majority of electrical and control work from that GC and as much as he tried to solicit kick backs and bribes from my employer while some of us were subpoenaed nothing was ever against us.

This is a big thing for many bogus GCs in NJ.


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## LV Phoneguy (Nov 3, 2016)

Thanks for the information, The links were very informative.

The savings to the contractor is 14$ an hour so it adds up pretty fast. Any time 
spent trenching or moving material is classified as Laborer. At a minimum the first and last hour of the day are paid as laborer, my friend lost $600 in one month from this.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

There is supposed to be a worksite overseer logging the employee work hours and making sure they are getting paid the proper amounts , who works for the liaison company between the GC and the customer agency on prevailing wage jobs. Somebody might be getting an envelope with 100 dollar bills stuffed into it each week............


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

macmikeman said:


> There is supposed to be a worksite overseer logging the employee work hours and making sure they are getting paid the proper amounts , who works for the liaison company between the GC and the customer agency on prevailing wage jobs. Somebody might be getting an envelope with 100 dollar bills stuffed into it each week............


If there are two sets of books and the 'slave' employees lie about wages when asked (afraid of losing the job or deportation) and the contractor "cashes" out the pay checks inhouse... There are as many ways around the system as there are legal oversights. Worked with several of these 'coyotes'. Love seeing them in the newspaper when they get caught. I have serious issues with indentured servitude or people easily taken advantage of.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

I worked many school jobs in which the IBEW teledata guys got A J-man rate. Maybe it's different here than over there, but there was no low voltage rate so as long as they weren't apprentices they had to be paid full electrician J-man rate.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

I turn in certified payroll every week and I think it would look a bit suspicious if I had one guy as an electrician on Monday for three hours and the same guy as a laborer that same Monday.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Suncoast Power said:


> I turn in certified payroll every week and I think it would look a bit suspicious if I had one guy as an electrician on Monday for three hours and the same guy as a laborer that same Monday.


I think this is what leads to their downfall many times. Unless your whole crew is made up of Jose Martinez's, Juan Garcia's, Jesus Rodriguez's it's an easy catch.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

MechanicalDVR said:


> I think this is what leads to their downfall many times. Unless your whole crew is made up of Jose Martinez's, Juan Garcia's, Jesus Rodriguez's it's an easy catch.


I have to have the last 4 digits of the SS each report and the name and address at least the first time they are reported.
All can be just fabricated


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Suncoast Power said:


> I have to have the last 4 digits of the SS each report and the name and address at least the first time they are reported.
> All can be just fabricated


Long story short, I had an issue with 5 people giving the same SSI number in a DMV line and when I spoke up about it to the clerk the policeman on duty threatened me with arrest. Apparently I was the problem....


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

MechanicalDVR said:


> Long story short, I had an issue with 5 people giving the same SSI number in a DMV line and when I spoke up about it to the clerk the policeman on duty threatened me with arrest. Apparently I was the problem....


Here we have a super duper system where you have to bring a passport, or a SS card and a birth certificate for a drivers license.

You have me wondering if there are any checks in the system to show duplications.


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## freeagnt54 (Aug 6, 2008)

LV Phoneguy said:


> Has anyone else been told that they will only pay Comm wage for half the day and pay you laborer wage for the other half of the day?
> 
> Or when we run conduit they will pay Electrician wage but comm wage to pull the wire?
> 
> ...


Document anything you can. Time cards, paystubs, emails, text messages. If they are found to be in the wrong they will have to back pay everyone they are cheating out of money, plus fines to cover the cost of any investigation.

Las Vegas Office 
Office of the Labor Commissioner
555 E. Washington Ave., Suite 4100
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: (702) 486-2650
Fax: (702) 486-2660
Email: [email protected]

Call and ask them some questions.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Suncoast Power said:


> Here we have a super duper system where you have to bring a passport, or a SS card and a birth certificate for a drivers license.
> 
> *You have me wondering if there are any checks in the system to show duplications.*


Apparently there isn't. Nephews of mine are LEOs in an urban area, they have problems all the time properly identifying suspects when there fingerprints are in the system under more than one name.


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## farmantenna (Nov 22, 2012)

LV Phoneguy said:


> Thanks for the information, The links were very informative.
> 
> The savings to the contractor is 14$ an hour so it adds up pretty fast. Any time
> spent trenching or moving material is classified as Laborer. At a minimum the first and last hour of the day are paid as laborer, my friend lost $600 in one month from this.


That's crazy. doesn't seem right but I don't know. I was just on a small PW job and I was moving materials ,digging and installing conduit and luckily my employer didn't ask me to track the different types of work I was doing because it would have been complicated. I considered myself an electrician digging and did a better job than the Laborer from the excavating company because I knew the bending characteristics of the pvc pipe


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## active1 (Dec 29, 2009)

Herd of others not long ago hired to work at Nellis AFB to do electrical.
They didn't have the county electrical license.
Contractor understood that and still hired them.
After they were working the company told them they would get labor pay as they weren't licensed.
I told them the same I'm telling you.
Keep working.
Call Lamar at IBEW 357.
Does not matter if your not in the local.
They will help you.
You'll get your money.


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