1.1 	A bill for an act
1.2 	relating to employment; amending the definition of
1.3 	prevailing wage rate; amending Minnesota Statutes
1.4 	2004, section 177.42, subdivision 6.
1.5 	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.6 	Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2004, section 177.42,
1.7 	subdivision 6, is amended to read:
1.8 		Subd. 6.Prevailing wage rate.  "Prevailing wage rate"
1.9 	means the hourly basic hourly rate of pay plus the rate of 
1.10 	contribution or cost for health and welfare benefits, vacation
1.11 	benefits, pension and retirement benefits, and any other fringe
1.12 	benefit of economic benefit value paid or made available to the
1.13 	largest number of workers majority of the employees engaged in
1.14 	the same class of labor within the area and includes, for the
1.15 	purposes of section 177.44, rental rates for truck hire paid to
1.16 	those who own and operate the truck. If no single rate is paid
1.17 	to the majority of the employees engaged in the same class of
1.18 	labor in the area, then the prevailing wage rate is the average
1.19 	of the hourly rates of pay plus the rate of contribution or cost
1.20 	for benefits, as described above, paid or made available to
1.21 	employees engaged in the same class of labor within the area,
1.22 	such average to be weighted by the number of employees to whom
1.23 	those rates are paid in the area.  If no prevailing wage rate
1.24 	has been determined for that class of labor in the county in
1.25 	which the project is located or in which the largest single part
2.1 	of the project is located, within the last two years, then the
2.2 	prevailing wage rate is the prevailing wage rate determined for
2.3 	that class of labor in the county nearest to the project within
2.4 	the same region, as defined in Minnesota Rules, part 5200.1030,
2.5 	for which a prevailing wage rate for that class of labor has
2.6 	been determined within the last two years.  If no prevailing
2.7 	wage has been determined for that class of labor for any county
2.8 	within the same region within the last two years, then there is
2.9 	no prevailing wage for that class of labor in the area.The
2.10 	prevailing wage rate may not be less than a reasonable and
2.11 	living wage.

2.12 	Sec. 2. EFFECTIVE DATE.
 2.13 	Section 1 is effective January 1, 2006.