Summary of Prevailing Wage Benefits
An overview of the Spectrum system features that accommodate the Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage benefits processing include the following:
Deduction / Add-on Code Maintenance
Spectrum can track benefits separately for Federal jobs (which fall under Davis-Bacon laws); state, county, and local jobs (which fall under prevailing wage laws) and private work. Add-on and deduction amounts for Davis-Bacon jobs, prevailing wage jobs, and private work (including non-job activities) are stored for each code; in turn, this information yields the total employer contribution for each code.
The Prevailing Wage Adjustment, or fringe is an additional amount paid to an employee on a paycheck or to a third party, for example, a pension. The fringe is typically an earnings code, such as 1, 2, 3, or SA. The fringe amount is automatically reduced by any health and welfare benefits. Calculation Health & welfare is used when benefit amounts are not paid on the paycheck to the employee. The prevailing Wage is recorded as an amount per hour. It is paid based on the number of hours worked (R, O, D, ER, EO, ED, SR). Usually, the amount of Health & welfare is variable from employee to employee. Therefore, the amount of the benefit is not recorded in the union or non-union file, across all employees. It is recorded in the employee file.
Deduction / Add-on Code Maintenance screen features include:
On the Add-ons tab, select the Print on paycheck checkbox for any add-on not paid to the employee on the paycheck.
Another calculation method is also available: percent of Straight time equivalent. It calculates like percent of gross, except that overtime earnings (O, EO) are reduced by a third and double-time earnings (D, ED) are reduced by half.
The Cash Fringe calculation method has been replaced with a Prevailing Wage Adjustment option (this can be selected pressing the letter W on the keyboard).
A Include pay and hours from section has been added to the tab, and the Davis-Bacon jobs, Prevailing wage jobs, and Other jobs & non-jobs checkboxes can be used to designate which time card lines to include in the gross pay calculation.
The software offers the flexibility to calculate adjusted gross pay amounts for specific add-ons and deductions by allowing you to set up matching 401(k) add-on codes. The Gross Pay Adjustments button in the Properties tab is available whenever the calculation method is based on gross pay.
Employees
A field is available to record the amount of the Health & welfare benefit. The "employer benefit" field is recorded for an hourly amount, and is calculated for regular hours only (R, ER and SR).
Union File Maintenance
The Prevailing Wage Adjustment, Health & welfare and Straight time gross calculations are incorporated in this screen.
Employee Recurring Deductions/Add-ons
The Prevailing Wage Adjustment, Health & welfare and Straight time gross calculations are incorporated in this screen.
Check Calculation
The check calculation process utilizes the Prevailing Wage Adjustment, Health & Welfare and Straight-time equivalent calculation methods.
Job Maintenance
The dates window in this screen includes a field for "certified date." This represents the first work date on the job, and is updated automatically when updating payroll. The user can access this field, if needed. In addition, the Job File Maintenance screen can now be used to set up Davis-Bacon or prevailing wage jobs (blank checkboxes indicate a private work job).
Employer Pension Contribution Report
A Crystal-Link report allows you to view all non-cash add-ons. Four versions of this report are available, including the following formats: Add-on Detail, Add-on Summary, Employee Detail, and Employee Summary. The report start screen includes a Pension Codes button that opens the Add-on Pension Maintenance window.
Certified Payroll Report
This format allows you to print an expanded version of this report, utilizing the new calculation methods. The two other reports (with and without totals) have been renamed 1 and 2. These reports have the new heading format, but are otherwise unchanged. The new heading includes the payroll week number, based on the "certified date" from the job file.
Additionally, up to six lines will display in the "other job pay" category. If there are more than seven lines to be reported, the last line will read "all other job pay." If any of these amounts are non-cash benefits, an asterisk (*) will appear to the left of the line.
In the window, you can select the Disable certified checkbox to designate the time card line as non-certified; for example, you might set this flag at certain levels for jobs that do not have any fringe amounts set up. This check box can be selected even if the job and phase indicate the line is certified, or if Davis-Bacon and prevailing wages are not applicable.
Union Report
This report utilizes the Prevailing Wage Adjustment, Health & Welfare, and Straight-time equivalent calculation methods.
