WORKERS COMPENSATIONFOR CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY DUAL WAGE AUDIT REQUIREMENTS AND STANDARD POLICYHOLDER NOTICE
As a reminder, effective January 1, 2008, the California Insurance Commissioner approved
amendments to the California Workers’ Compensation Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan. These
amendments were intended to clarify how to determine the regular hourly wage for dual wage
construction or erection classifications. This requires all employers to maintain precise records of hours
worked each day for each employee.
PAYROLL RECORD REQUIREMENTS FOR DUAL WAGE CONSTRUCTION OR ERECTION CLASSIFICATIONS
Dual wage classifications are pairs of classifications that describe the same construction or erection
operation yet are assigned based upon whether the employee’s hourly wage is above or below a
specified threshold. Each pair of dual wage classifications contains one “high wage” classification that
is assignable to payrolls earned by employees whose regular hourly wage equals or exceeds a
specified wage threshold and one “low wage” classification that is assignable to payrolls earned by
employees whose regular hourly wage is less than the specified threshold.
If your policy includes one or more dual wage construction or erection classifications. The assignment of
a high wage classification to any non-salaried employee is contingent on verifying that employee’s
hourly wage by reconciling the total number of hours the employee actually worked during the policy
period against the employee’s time cards or time sheets that document the operations performed, the
daily start and stop times and the total hours worked each day for that employee.
The non-salaried employee’s regular hourly wage shall be determined by dividing that employee’s total
remuneration by the hours worked, irrespective of whether the employee is paid on an hourly,
piecework, production or commission basis.
The payroll earned by any non-salaried employees for whom we are unable to verify the total number
of hours worked will be assigned to the low wage classification that describes the operations
performed.
The regular hourly wage of salaried employees is determined by dividing the total annual remuneration
by 2000 hours. If an employee is salaried for less than 12 months, the regular hourly wage for the salaried
period is calculated on a prorated basis.
