Prevailing Wage Hub

Prevailing wage is a minimum compensation level set by the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) by county for construction activities related to public works. Section 1-75(c)(1)(Q) of the IPA Act (20 ILCS 3855) as modified by Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (Public Act 102-0662) now requires that individuals engaged in the construction of applicable projects submitted to Illinois Shines (legislatively known as the Adjustable Block Program) are paid the relevant prevailing wage. Additionally, Illinois Public Act 102-0673 (effective as of November 30, 2021) clarifies that such projects are “public works” subject to the Prevailing Wage Act—which includes notice requirements and related provisions as well. The Prevailing Wage Act defines ‘construction’ to include maintenance, repair, assembly, or disassembly work performed on equipment.

All projects submitted to Illinois Shines are subject to prevailing wage with the exception of:

• Residential DG projects
• DG Projects that serve a house of worship and do not exceed 100 kWac
• Waitlisted (as of December 14, 2021) non-residential Large DG projects
  
  

In addition, construction activities for all other distributed generation projects that occurred before September 15, 2021, will not be subject to prevailing wage requirements. For distributed generation and community solar projects that do not fall into one of the above exempted categories, construction activities including maintenance, that occur after September 15, 2021 will be subject to prevailing wage requirements.