A prevailing wage rate is a minimum hourly rate that workers must be paid in projects that are funded by certain governmental entities. What that means in practice is that usually the minimum wage rate is something fairly low, you may know what it is. In these prevailing wage rate situations it’s something much higher.
Now, what that exact number is depends on a lot of things. It depends on what job you’re performing, it depends on how long you’ve been doing it and it depends on what kind of project you’re doing but in order to see if you are entitled to that you should ask a lawyer.
If you’re working in construction on any kind of government related project, so for example if you’re working on a school construction project or you’re working on a public transit worksite or you’re working on some sort of government building you should at least ask the question and see if you’re entitled to that prevailing wage rate because usually it’s significantly higher than you would normally receive from a regular job so it’s worth asking a lawyer to see if you’re entitled to this extra money.