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A couple of times a year, officials at the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries publish a comparison of prevailing state and federal wages.

But there is a problem.

Federal wages change 20 times during the course of the year, Kate Newhall, legislative director for BOLI, told members of the Senate Business, Transportation and Economic Development Committee last week.

It’s confusing, Newhall said.

Comparing state and federal wages is important, she said, because Oregon’s prevailing wage law requires workers hired under state contracts to be paid the higher of the two rates.

Tracking state wages is easy, she added. However, factoring in fluctuating wages and benefits on a national scale swelled the January report to 499 pages requiring 200 hours of staff time. Compare that, Newhall said, to January 2010, when the report was only 179 pages.

Current federal rates can be verified online, but state law requires BOLI to print hard copies of comparisons at $11 a pop.

This is where Senate Bill 178 comes in.

It would abolish the requirement for BOLI to print comparisons of state and federal wages.

“The requirement that contract specifications provide information about how to electronically access the applicable wage rates is retained,” Newhall said.

“To ensure utmost clarity, SB 178 creates a new requirement that every public works contract and subcontract contain a provision that workers must be paid no less than the higher of the applicable state or federal prevailing rate of wage.”

The legislative effort is commendable, Newhall added.

“This legislation reduces confusion for contractors by discontinuing an unwieldy, unusable publication while saving agency resources in printing and staff time that are better focused on providing the clear information and technical assistance necessary for contracting agencies and contractors to comply with the prevailing wage rate law,” she said.

Following a public hearing, the committee will schedule a work session on the bill.