Valley Water is dedicated to ensuring fair pay practices and supporting a strong local economy by adhering to local and federal wage standards, implementing a Project Labor Agreement, and enacting policies that promote small business participation in contracting opportunities.
Prevailing Wage Law and Living Wage Policy
Prevailing Wage Law
Public works projects are subject to state and federal prevailing wage requirements, depending on funding sources. The State of California Department of Industrial Relations determines prevailing wage rates for locally funded projects. The U.S. Department of Labor determines prevailing wage rates for projects that include federal funding. Valley Water establishes the prevailing wage rates that will apply to an awarded project during the solicitation stage and will monitor compliance using LCPtracker.
Living Wage
The Valley Water Living Wage Policy establishes wage rates for janitorial and security contracts. Visit the Living Wage Policy page for more information:
Small Business Enterprise Outreach Program
The Valley Water Small Business Enterprise Outreach Program Policy provides bid and proposal evaluation preference points to bidders and proposers certified by the California Department of General Services (DGS) as a Small Business. Non-small business bidders and proposers may also receive preference if they fulfill the 30% DGS-certified Small Business subcontractor/subconsultant participation goal. If the goal is not met, good faith efforts to subcontract with Small Businesses are required to be considered responsive.
Additional resources:
SBE Outreach Program – Bidder/Proposer FAQ
Ordinance No. 23-03 - Directing Establishment Procedures SBE for Contracting Construction
Project Labor Agreement (PLA)
Valley Water and the Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building and Construction Trades Council entered into a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) on January 11, 2022. The PLA applies to Valley Water public works projects with an engineer’s estimate, or a cumulative awarded bid amount, that exceeds two million dollars ($2,000,000).