Please feel free to share your thoughts and/or questions in the comments section of this blog below. The U.S. Department of Labor has released its annual memorandum regarding the rate for Service Contract Act (SCA) Health and Welfare Fringe Benefits. The rate will be retained at $4.27 per hour, effective July 29, 2016. As prescribed by the regulations, the benefit rate is derived from the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Employment Cost Index (ECI), summary of Employer Cost for Employee Compensation (ECEC). The rate will be posted on the Wage Determinations Online (www.wdol.gov) and Wage and Hour Division (WHD) (www.dol.gov/whd) websites. SCA benefit change notices are not sent directly to contractors or subcontractors, so we wanted to make sure our SCA contractor clients were aware of this rate increase. Additionally, the new SCA Health and Welfare Fringe Benefits level for Hawaii will increase to $1.78 per hour, for all employees on whose behalf the contractor provides health care benefits pursuant to the Hawaii Health Care Prepaid Act. For those employees not receiving mandated health care benefits under the HPHCA, the new Health and Welfare rate will remain at $4.27 per hour. If you have questions regarding this fee as it pertains to your contract, call us at 1.800.250.2741 or email us at solutions@gsanational.com. The DOL announces the Health and Welfare Fringe Benefit rate for SCA contracts will remain at $4.27 for 2016. https://t.co/UpBRJIHgWD — GSA National (@GSANational) July 29, 2016