Prevailing wage: per diem wages.

Assembly Member Hadwick's prevailing wage legislation revises how employers calculate and claim credit for benefit payments on public works projects, establishing new requirements for annualizing contributions across both public and private construction work. The bill eliminates existing exemptions that allowed some employers to avoid annualizing their benefit contributions and revokes all prior exemptions authorized by the Department of Industrial Relations as of January 2026.

Under the new provisions, employers must calculate benefit payment credits by dividing total contributions by all hours worked annually on both public and private projects, with one key exception - defined contribution pension plans offering immediate participation and vesting qualify for full hourly credit on public works regardless of private project contribution rates. The bill places the burden of proof on employers to demonstrate proper credit calculations through detailed payment records, authorizing the Labor Commissioner to deny credits when documentation is insufficient.

The legislation incorporates the January 2023 edition of the U.S. Department of Labor Field Operations Handbook as the governing standard for prevailing wage fringe benefit issues not explicitly addressed in California law. This alignment establishes consistent parameters for calculating and claiming benefit payment credits across public works projects while maintaining existing requirements for filing collective bargaining agreements that affect prevailing wage determinations.