§104-2 Rate of wages for laborers and mechanics; contract and specification provisions. (a) Except as otherwise provided, the specifications of every contract in excess of $2,000 to which a governmental contracting agency is a party, for construction of any public work, shall state the minimum wages that shall be paid to the various classes of laborers and mechanics engaged in the performance of the contract on the job site, and that the minimum wages shall be periodically increased during the performance of the contract in an amount equal to the increase in the prevailing wages for those kinds of work as periodically determined by the director of labor and industrial relations; provided that this subsection shall be applied individually and on a case by case basis to each public work project, including development of housing under section 46-15 or chapter 201G, for which a contract is required under this section, and that specific terms of each contract shall be mutually exclusive of the terms of any other public work contract; and provided further that this subsection shall not apply to experimental and demonstration housing developed pursuant to section 46-15 or housing developed pursuant to chapter 201G if the cost of the project is less than $500,000 and the eligible bidder or eligible developer is a private nonprofit corporation.

For the purposes of this subsection:

"Governmental contracting agency" includes any person or entity that causes either directly or indirectly the building or development of a public work.

"Party" includes eligible bidders for and eligible developers of any public work and any housing under chapter 201G; provided that this subsection shall not apply to any housing developed under section 46-15 or chapter 201G if the entire cost of the project is less than $500,000 and the eligible bidder or eligible developer is a private nonprofit corporation.

"Public work" means any project, including development of any housing pursuant to section 46-15 or chapter 201G, and development, construction, renovation, and maintenance related to refurbishment of any real or personal property, where the funds or resources required to undertake the project are to any extent derived either directly or indirectly from public revenues of the State or any county, or from the sale of securities or bonds whose interest or dividends are exempt from state or federal taxes.

(b) The minimum wages shall be not less than the wages that the director of labor and industrial relations, under the rules, shall have determined to be the prevailing wages for corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics on projects of similar character in the State. The prevailing wages shall be not less than the wages payable under federal law to corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics employed on public works in the State that are prosecuted under contract or agreement with the government of the United States. Notwithstanding the provisions of the original contract, if the director determines that the prevailing wage has increased, the rate of pay of laborers and mechanics on a public work project shall be raised accordingly.

(c) The contract and specifications shall contain the provision that no laborer or mechanic employed on the job site of any public work of the State or any political subdivision thereof shall be permitted or required to work on Saturday, Sunday, or a legal holiday of the State or in excess of eight hours on any other day unless the laborer or mechanic receives overtime compensation for all hours worked on Saturday, Sunday, and a legal holiday of the State or in excess of eight hours on any other day. For purposes of determining overtime compensation under this subsection, the basic hourly rate of any laborer or mechanic shall not be less than the basic hourly rate determined by the director to be the prevailing basic hourly rate for corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics on projects of similar character in the State.

(d) Every such contract and the specifications for the contract shall contain (1) a provision that the contractor or the contractor's subcontractor shall pay all mechanics and laborers employed on the job site, unconditionally and not less often than once a week, and without deduction or rebate on any account, except as allowed by law, the full amounts of their wages including overtime, accrued to not more than five working days prior to the time of payment, at wage rates not less than those stated in the contract and specifications, regardless of any contractual relationship which may be alleged to exist between the contractor or subcontractor and the laborers and mechanics, and (2) a provision that the rates of wages to be paid shall be posted by the contractor in a prominent and easily accessible place at the job site, and that a copy of the rates of wages required to be posted, be given to each laborer and mechanic employed under the contract by the contractor at the time each laborer and mechanic is employed, provided that where there is a collective bargaining agreement the contractor does not have to provide the contractor's employees the wage rate schedules.

(e) Every such contract and the specifications for such contract shall contain a provision that the governmental contracting agency may withhold from the contractor so much of the accrued payments as the governmental contracting agency may consider necessary to pay to laborers and mechanics employed by the contractor or any subcontractor on the job site the difference between the wages required by the contract or specifications and the wages received and not refunded by the laborers and mechanics. [L 1955, c 133, pt of §2; RL 1955, §9A-2; am L 1957, c 93, §1; am L 1959, c 27, §1 and c 98, §1; am L Sp 1959 2d, c 1, §27; am L 1965, c 198, §§1, 2; HRS §104-2; gen ch 1985; am L 1987, c 288, §3; am L 1990, c 294, §2; am L 1992, c 281, §2; am L 1997, c 350, §15]