Opinion ID: 1651329
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Claims for Underpaid Wages Pursuant to Prevailing Wage Law

Text: Plaintiffs assert the trial court erred in not including in its judgment an award for underpaid wages because Brown Builders was required to pay them a percentage of the prevailing wage for electricians in Butler County. [5] The record reveals that while working on the public works project, Plaintiffs were paid between $6 and $12 per hour. They claim they were underpaid because the prevailing wage law required they receive at least $12.75 per hour. Plaintiffs reach this figure by maintaining that the prevailing wage law requires they be paid 46.2%, the percentage specified for entry-level apprentices in the registered apprentice program, of $27.85, which is the prevailing hourly wage rate for an electrician in Butler County as determined by the Missouri Division of Labor Standards and listed in the annual wage order. Under the prevailing wage law, all workers employed by private contractors in the construction of public works must be paid not less than the prevailing hourly rate of wages for work of a similar character in the locality in which the work is performed. Section 290.230; State Dep't of Labor and Indus. Relations, Div. of Labor Standards v. Bd. of Pub. Utilities of the City of Springfield, 910 S.W.2d 737, 740 (Mo.App.1995). The prevailing wage law specifically gives the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (the department) the power to establish rules and regulations for the purpose of carrying out the prevailing wage law. Section 290.240. In this capacity, the department enacted 8 CSR 30-3.030 specifically dealing with how apprentices are to be paid. It states that apprentices shall be permitted to work at less than the prevailing hourly wage rate as long as they are employed pursuant to and individually registered in a bona fide apprenticeship program registered with the United States Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training. 8 CSR 30-3.030(2). In this case, Plaintiffs were apprentices in a program properly registered with the United States Department of Labor. They were, therefore, allowed to make less than the prevailing hourly wage rate. The issue to be determined is how much their rate of pay should be. 8 CSR 30-3.030(2) states, Every apprentice shall be paid at not less than the rate specified in the registered program for the apprentice's level of progress, expressed as a percentage of the journeymen hourly rate for the class or type of worker specified in the applicable wage determination. The question on appeal is whether the phrase journeymen hourly rate . . . in the applicable wage determination means the prevailing hourly wage rate, as Plaintiffs allege, or the rate specified by Brown Builders in the apprenticeship program. The same rules of construction are used to interpret regulations as are used to interpret statutes. Teague v. Missouri Gaming Comm'n, 127 S.W.3d 679, 685 (Mo.App.2003). The primary rule of statutory interpretation is to ascertain the intent of the legislature from the language used, to give effect to that intent if possible, and to consider the words in their plain and ordinary meaning. In re Boland, 155 S.W.3d 65, 67 (Mo. banc 2005). In determining the intent and meaning of statutory language, the words must be considered in context and sections of the statutes in pari materia, as well as cognate sections, must be considered in order to arrive at the true meaning and scope of the words. State ex rel. Wright v. Carter, 319 S.W.2d 596, 600 (Mo. banc 1959). The provisions of a legislative act are not read in isolation but construed together, and if reasonably possible, the provisions will be harmonized with each other. Bachtel v. Miller County Nursing Home Dist., 110 S.W.3d 799, 801 (Mo. banc 2003). In this case, the terms in the phrase at issue, journeymen hourly rate . . . in the applicable wage determination, appear elsewhere in 8 CSR 30-3.030, and the intended meaning of those words is clear when they are read in the context of 8 CSR 30-3.030 in its entirety. 8 CSR 30-3.030(1) states that workers employed by contractors engaged in public works construction must be paid the journeymen's rate of pay. Because workers employed by or on behalf of any public body engaged in the construction of public works must be paid at least the prevailing hourly rate of wages for similar work in the locality where the work is performed, the journeymen's rate in this context is synonymous to the prevailing wage set by the department in its annual wage order. Section 290.230. Apprentices may earn less than the prevailing rate if they are employed pursuant to and individually registered in an apprenticeship program. 8 CSR 30-3.030(1). If a worker is listed on the payroll at the apprentice wage rate, but is not employed pursuant to and registered in an apprenticeship program, the worker shall be paid not less than the applicable wage rate on the wage determination for the class or type of work actually performed. [6] 8 CSR 30-3.030(2). Further, if the construction site's apprentice-to-journeyman ratio exceeds that permitted under the registered program, those apprentices in excess of the ratio must be paid at least the prevailing wage. Id. 8 CSR 30-3.030(2) then directs that an apprentice's pay rate shall be not less than the rate specified in the registered program for the apprentice's level of progress, expressed as a percentage of the journeymen hourly rate for the class or type of worker specified in the applicable wage determination. Id. In context, the only reasonable interpretation of that phrase is that an apprentice's wages are based on a percentage of the prevailing rate paid to journeymen for the occupation as listed in the department's annual wage order. As apprentices accumulate experience and skill, they earn a higher percentage of the prevailing rate paid to journeymen. Once an apprentice achieves full journeymen status, i.e. fully-trained and finished with their apprenticeship status, then they must be paid the full prevailing wage rate. HTH Companies, Inc. v. Missouri Dep't of Labor and Indus. Relations, 157 S.W.3d 224, 227-28 (Mo.App. 2004). Other provisions of the prevailing wage law and its corresponding regulations support this conclusion. Section 290.262 states that the department shall annually investigate and determine the prevailing hourly rate of wages in each locality for each separate occupational title. (Emphasis added). Although the term is not defined by statute, wage determination is consistently used interchangeably with the rate specified in the department's annual wage order. See section 290.210.5 (governing how a contractor may discharge its obligation to pay employees in accordance with the prevailing wage determinations of the department); 10 CSR 20-4.040(18)(H) (stating that bid documents for clean water projects paid for with public grants shall contain the current prevailing wage determination issued by the [department]); 8 CSR 20-5.010 (stating that the purpose of the rule is to specify procedures for objecting to wage orders, including prevailing wage determinations ). Clearly, wage determination, under the prevailing wage law, refers to prevailing wages formulated by the department for each occupational title and listed in the annual wage order. In this case, entry-level apprentices were to be paid at least 46.2%, the registered program's percentage for entry-level apprentices, of $27.85, the prevailing hourly wage for an electrician in Butler County. Plaintiffs received less than this minimum wage. Brown Builders' regular salary for journeyman electricians, listed in the registered program as $13 per hour, has no bearing on apprentice electricians' wages for this project because it is a public works contract. The trial court, therefore, erred in failing to award Plaintiffs underpaid wages.