Changes made to prevailing wage laws in 2018 resulted in dramatic cost increases for many job classes, including those related to landscape maintenance.
In March, the Department of Labor & Industries responded to AWC’s and other stakeholders’ concerns by adopting an emergency rule that created a new scope of work for landscape maintenance that is unique from landscape construction. The rulemaking process to make the emergency rule into a permanent rule has begun. Cities can engage, track, and find more information about the rulemaking at L&I’s Rules Under Development webpage.
The agency provided AWC with this tentative schedule for rulemaking:
- July 5: File CR-103E (Emergency Rule Package)
- July 23: File CR-102 (Proposed Rule Package)
- September 9: Public Hearing in Tumwater (at 1 pm)
- October 1: File CR-103 (Adopted Rule Package)
- November 1: Effective date