State Finance and Procurement - Prevailing Wage Rate - Calculation
HB0997 would change how Maryland’s Commissioner of Labor and Industry calculates prevailing wage rates for public works projects. The bill keeps the existing framework for determining prevailing wages, including straight-time and overtime rates, but adds a new restriction: when setting a prevailing wage, the Commissioner may not survey or use wage data from employees directly employed by investor-owned gas companies, investor-owned electric companies, or combined investor-owned gas and electric companies. If a prevailing wage determination is challenged under the existing petition-for-review process and was based on prohibited utility wage data, the Commissioner must vacate that wage rate and recalculate it without using that data.
The bill also retains and restates the current rules for how prevailing wages are calculated when no single wage rate is paid to a majority of workers in a locality, including the 40% threshold and weighted-average fallback. It continues to require inclusion of fringe benefits in the wage calculation and preserves apprentice pay rules tied to a percentage of the prevailing wage. The bill would take effect July 1, 2026, and it amends Maryland’s State Finance and Procurement law, with a related definitional addition in the Public Utilities Article for “investor-owned gas company.”
HB0997 would directly affect the State Finance and Procurement Article by narrowing the wage data sources the Commissioner may use when determining prevailing wage rates for public works. In practice, this could alter prevailing wage determinations for construction and other covered public projects by excluding compensation data from certain investor-owned utility employers, potentially changing wage benchmarks used for contractors, subcontractors, and apprentices. It also creates a mandatory remedy requiring the Commissioner to vacate and recalculate a wage rate if a review shows the prohibited utility data was used.
The available record shows no committee transcript, recorded votes, or floor debate, so there is no documented public discussion to gauge broad sentiment. The bill’s introduction and assignment to the Government, Labor, and Elections Committee suggest it was treated as a labor-and-procurement policy measure, but the only recorded action is that it was withdrawn by the sponsor in the House. That withdrawal indicates the proposal did not advance and may have lacked sufficient support or been set aside before committee action.
The central point of contention appears to be the bill’s exclusion of wage data from investor-owned gas and electric companies when calculating prevailing wages. Supporters would likely view the change as preventing utility-sector wages from inflating public-works wage determinations, while opponents could argue that excluding those employers narrows the data set and may distort local market wages. Another likely issue is the mandatory vacatur and recalculation remedy, which could create uncertainty for existing wage determinations and public project bidding if challenged.