Massachusetts requires its city, town and state awarding authorities to award public construction projects to the lowest responsible and eligible bidder and requires the selected contractors and subcontractors to comply with prevailing wage and related state laws.
Our Job
The FFCM works to level the playing field for contractors/subcontractors who comply with the law by keeping close watch on public construction projects across the state.
- Our staff attend bid openings, collect and review certified payroll records for compliance, work with awarding authorities to identify violations and assist workers to transmit complaints to applicable enforcement agencies.
- Our semiannual publication, Public Construction Watch, provides contractors with updates on new laws and advisories and publishes outcomes of important precedent-setting decisions affecting public construction.
The FFCM also assists contractors and subcontractors with the following:
- Understanding and navigating the competitive bidding process, including pre-qualification
- Providing nformation on compliance with prevailing wage and related laws
Contractor Responsibility
Contractors and subcontractors have compliance responsibilities of their own. These include, but are not limited to:
- Paying the established Massachusetts prevailing wage rate, regardless of the estimated price of the project. Federally funded projects are governed by the Federal Davis-Bacon Act. All workers engaged in actual public works construction on the job site must be paid no less than the prevailing wage.
- Filing certified payroll records directly with the awarding authority weekly.These records must contain accurate information detailing each employee’s name, address, occupational classification, hours worked and wages paid. Deductions made from employee wages to a bona fide pension, health and welfare or supplemental unemployment plans must be shown on the certified payroll records.
- Providing copies of OSHA 10 certification cards for all employees who work on the project.
- Provide copies of MA Apprentice identification cards for all apprentices who work on the project.