Labor Hour Contract Fixed Rate for Labor Category

Could you please elaborate; are you referring to multiple rates for one person or position?

joel hoffman said:

Could you please elaborate; are you referring to multiple rates for one person or position?

By position/labor category.  The contract has several administrative assistant positions, which are specifically covered under the SCA, but some positions have different hourly rates.

L_Richardson said:

The contract has several administrative assistant positions, which are specifically covered under the SCA, but some positions have different hourly rates.

Do(es) the applicable wage determination(s) show different rates for the position?

L_Richardson said:

By position/labor category.  The contract has several administrative assistant positions, which are specifically covered under the SCA, but some positions have different hourly rates.

The SCA rates are minimums, aren’t they? I don’t see why there couldn’t be multiple contract rates. Is this a negotiated contract or is there only one line/subline item for admin assistant positions in a solicitation?

Retreadfed said:

Do(es) the applicable wage determination(s) show different rates for the position?

No, the SCA WD only has one administrative assistant labor category with a single rate.

joel hoffman said:

The SCA rates are minimums, aren’t they? I don’t see why there couldn’t be multiple contract rates. Is this a negotiated contract or is there only one line/subline item for admin assistant positions in a solicitation?

Yes, the SCA WD rates are the minimum to which the contractor proposed well above that amount.  It’s a sole-source effort and I’m in the process of negotiating hourly rates, but the Contractor is holding strong though.  
All the positions are lumped under one CLIN, so I plan on including a table with the negotiated rates for each labor category which is why I wanted to know if one labor category could have multiple rates.

L_Richardson said:

All the positions are lumped under one CLIN, so I plan on including a table with the negotiated rates for each labor category which is why I wanted to know if one labor category could have multiple rates.

I presume that there will be multiple individuals who occupy the administrative assistant position.  How will you determine which individual is paid at what rate?

That’s part of the problem which is why I thought there was only supposed to be one rate per labor category when doing a labor hour contract.  I couldn’t find any thing in the FAR that specifically addresses this.

Retreadfed said:

Do(es) the applicable wage determination(s) show different rates for the position?

No, just one rate for this labor category/position.

L_Richardson said:

Can a labor hour contract have a specific labor category (e.g. administrative assistant) with multiple fixed hourly rates when all work will be performed by the prime contractor?

Yes, because it is not prohibited. See FAR 1.102(d).

L_Richardson said:

Yes, the SCA WD rates are the minimum to which the contractor proposed well above that amount.  It’s a sole-source effort and I’m in the process of negotiating hourly rates, but the Contractor is holding strong though.  
All the positions are lumped under one CLIN, so I plan on including a table with the negotiated rates for each labor category which is why I wanted to know if one labor category could have multiple rates.

I’ve seen two different ways of handling this.  One is used a blended rate which essentially is an average of all positions.  It’s often used when internally you have multiple job titles for the work.  The other is creating sub LCATs like Admin1, Admin2, etc. 

A recent example is conference support where the same labor category (admin support) performed multiple duties of varying complexity.  The positions did things like participant registration, distributing materials, capturing speaker comments, preparing presentations and slide decks, operating equipment, etc.  and different rates were associated with each.  The contractor had separate billings for each and the government liked it.

It’s negotiated contract pricing. I wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with the contractor proposing different salaries for the different persons, with separate pricing.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond!  Appreciate the guidance!