According to the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act, "public utilities" are exempt from the prevailing wage.
"Public works" does not include work done directly by any public utility company, whether or not done under public supervision or direction, or paid for wholly or in part out of public funds. In theory, you could get set up as a utility and then claim exemption from the act. The downside is that becoming a public utility might introduce more expense/overhead than is avoided by paying the prevailing wage. Also note that you don't have to pay the prevailing wage to anyone that works on the project. Just to those persons who are in the class of workers that are covered by the act: laborers, workers and mechanics. I would argue that administrators, technicians, engineers, etc. are not in that category. I realize that this doesn't help a lot because you probably don't want to be paying your tower climber more than your network administrator. Regards, Larry Yunker Former Illinois WISP Current Ohio Attorney Disclaimer: The foregoing is not to be construed as legal advice but rather a layperson discussion of a business topic. -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Nathan Stooke Sent: Monday, March 18, 2013 12:46 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] Prevailing Wage Hello, We are working on several wireless and security camera proposals for municipalities in our area, Illinois. The question has been raised about Prevailing Wage and if we have to pay it. When looking into it, it looks like we do. All $44/hour to any one that works on the project. I do not want to get people all up in arms about the Prevailing Wage act. That is a discussion we can have at a WISPA show after hours. :) Has anyone had to deal with this? Did you get a for sure answers yes or no? Where you audited and survived? Thanks _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
