However, over the years the department has worked with resale and thrift stores on various education campaigns to decrease the amount of unsafe product that is turned around. The department has created a poster that highlights 12 unsafe products, including products covered by this rule, to educate both store employees and consumers who donate goods. These campaigns have helped the stores make safe product available to consumers. These posters will be available for resale and thrift store owners to post.
This rule is needed to protect consumers from unsafe toys and other articles that present a hazard and unreasonable risk of personal injury. A majority of the products contained in the rule are intended for use by children. Children are at a disadvantage as they are unable to evaluate risk.
Although this rule may have some adverse effects on some small businesses, those effects are generally minimal and are outweighed by the need to prevent the potential for injury and death. DATCP has not exempted small businesses, because the risk of injury and death is unrelated to business size.
Fiscal Estimate
This rule will not have significant fiscal impact on DATCP or local units of government.
Notice of Hearing
Workforce Development
Public Works Construction Contracts,
Chs. DWD 290-294
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to ss.
66.0903 (5) and
103.49 (3g), Stats., the Department of Workforce Development proposes to hold a public hearing on emergency and proposed permanent rules to consider the amendment of s.
DWD 290.155 (1), relating to the adjustment of thresholds for application of prevailing wage rates.
Hearing Information
Date
|
Location
|
February 12, 2009
Thursday
1:30 PM
|
G.E.F. 1 Bldg., B103
201 East Washington Avenue
Madison, WI
|
Interested persons are invited to appear at the hearing and will be afforded the opportunity to make an oral presentation of their positions. Persons making oral presentations are requested to submit their facts, views, and suggested rewording in writing.
Visitors to the GEF 1 building are requested to enter through the left East Washington Avenue door and register with the customer service desk. The entrance is accessible via a ramp from the corner of Webster Street and East Washington Avenue. If you have special needs or circumstances regarding communication or accessibility at the hearing, please call (608) 267-9403 at least 10 days prior to the hearing date. Accommodations such as ASL interpreters, English translators, or materials in audiotape format will be made available on request to the fullest extent possible.
Copies of Proposed Rule
The proposed rules are available at the web site
http://adminrules.wisconsin.gov by typing “prevailing wage" in the search engine. This site allows you to view documents associated with this rule's promulgation, register to receive email notification whenever the Department posts new information about this rulemaking order, and submit comments and view comments by others during the public comment period. You may receive a paper copy of the rule by contacting:
Howard Bernstein
Office of Legal Counsel
Dept. of Workforce Development
P.O. Box 7946
Madison, WI 53707-7946
(608) 266-9427
Submission of Written Comments
Written comments on the proposed rules received at the above address, email, or through the http://adminrules. wisconsin.gov web site no later than February 12, 2009, will be given the same consideration as testimony presented at the hearing.
Analysis Prepared by the Department of Workforce Development
Statutes interpreted
Statutory authority
Explanation of agency authority
The prevailing wage laws require that when a state agency or local governmental unit contracts for the erection, construction, remodeling, repairing, or demolition of a public works project it must obtain a prevailing wage rate determination from the Department of Workforce Development and require that the contractors and subcontractors on the project pay their employees in accordance with those wage rates. Sections
66.0903 (5) and
103.49 (3g), Stats., set initial estimated project cost thresholds for application of the prevailing wage rate requirements and direct the Department to adjust the thresholds each year in proportion to any change in construction costs since the thresholds were last determined. Pursuant to s.
DWD 290.15, the Department adjusts the thresholds based on changes in the construction cost index published in the
Engineering News-Record, a national construction trade publication.
Summary of the proposed rule
Section
DWD 290.155 (1) currently provides that the prevailing wage rate requirements do not apply to any single-trade public works project for which the estimated cost of completion is below $45,000 and do not apply to any multi-trade public works project for which the estimated cost of completion is below $221,000. This rule adjusts the thresholds from $45,000 to $48,000 for a single-trade project and from $221,000 to $234,000 for a multi-trade project based on a 5.71% increase in the construction cost index between December 2007 and December 2008.
Comparison with federal regulations
The federal prevailing wage law applies to a federal public works project for which the contract is greater than $2,000. This threshold is in statute and is rarely adjusted.
Comparison with laws in adjacent states
Minnesota
Minnesota has a statutory threshold of $2,500 for a single-trade project and $25,000 for a multi-trade project.
Illinois
Illinois does not have a threshold in its prevailing wage law. The law covers public works projects and defines public works projects as projects financed under various other specified laws.
Michigan
Michigan does not have a threshold in its prevailing wage law. The law covers projects that must be bid and relies on other agencies to determine the thresholds for what projects must be bid.
Iowa
Iowa does not have a prevailing wage law.
Summary of factual data and analytical methodologies
The thresholds are increased based on the national inflation rate in the construction industry. The Department uses the construction cost index in the Engineering News-Record, a national construction trade publication, to determine the inflation rate.
Small Business Impact
The proposed rule does not affect small businesses.
Fiscal Estimate
Under the proposed and emergency rules, a state agency or local governmental unit contracting for the construction of a single-trade public works project that costs more than $45,000 but less than $48,000 or a multi-trade project that costs more than $221,000 but less than $234,000 will not be covered by the prevailing wage requirement.
Agency Contact Person
Julie Eckenwalder, Section Chief, Construction Wage Standards Section, (608) 266-3148, Julie.Eckenwalder@ dwd.wisconsin.gov.
