Possible Revisions to Connecticut’s Prevailing Wage Laws

Anyone involved with public construction projects is familiar with the term “prevailing wage,” which is generally understood to mean the minimum wages established by the government for each labor class that works on a given project. 29 C.F.R. § 1.2(a)(1). Connecticut’s prevailing wage requirements are far less onerous than the federal law, which apply to any project that costs more than $2,000. 40 USCS § 3142. Connecticut’s prevailing wage law only applies to new construction where the total cost of the work is $400,000 or more, and on remodeling or rehabilitation projects where the total cost of the work is $100,000 or more. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-53. Nonetheless, the state is currently considering increasing the project costs for which the prevailing wage law requirements will apply, i.e. the law’s threshold limits; indexing the threshold limits to inflation; and/or exempting certain public projects from the requirements entirely.

Given the disparity between the state and federal requirements described above and the proposed bills, it is interesting to consider the goals that the Connecticut state legislature intends to achieve. For all the bills that increase the threshold limits and/or exempt certain projects, the stated goals are to reduce costs for town public works projects;

The Importance of Determining the Amount to Which You May Be Entitled After the Breach of a Construction Contract

Litigation is expensive. Before pursuing any particular claim, you need to determine if pursuing the claim makes economic sense. Standing on principle sounds good initially but often starts to seem like less of a good idea as the litigation costs mount.

The value of a claim is referred to as the “measure of damages.” In every lawsuit, the plaintiff has to prove that the defendant did something wrong that injured the plaintiff, i.e. establish the defendant’s “liability”; and the plaintiff has to prove the amount of money to which it is entitled to receive as a result of the defendant’s wrongful conduct to a reasonable certainty, i.e. establish the plaintiff’s “damages.”

Proving damages is just as important as proving liability. The failure of a plaintiff to prove its damages will result in the claims against the defendant being dismissed. See e.g. Shoreline Care Ltd. P’Ship v. Jansen & Rogan Consulting Eng’rs, P.C., 2002 Conn. Super. LEXIS 3715, *15, (Conn. Super. Ct. Nov. 15, 2002). In Shoreline Care Ltd. P’Ship, the project was constructed in phases but, because of the procedural history of the case,