Which of my employees count as SCA service employees, and are supervisors and admin staff exempt?

The Service Contract Act (SCA) covers service employees performing work under a covered federal contract in the United States. Supervisors and administrative staff are not exempt from the SCA if their primary duty is performing service work, even if they occasionally perform supervisory or administrative tasks.

The Department of Labor provides guidance on what constitutes a service employee. The SCA applies to all service employees working on a covered contract. This includes guards, schedulers, and payroll clerks if their duties directly support the contract. The key is whether their principal purpose is to perform service work.

The health and welfare fringe benefit line item generally applies to all service employees covered by the wage determination, including those who may also perform some supervisory or administrative duties. The SCA clause at FAR 52.222-41 is inserted in service contracts over the threshold, and the Service Contract Labor Standards apply only to service contracts performed in the United States.

Supervisors and admin staff are exempt only if they pass the executive, administrative or professional tests in 29 CFR part 541. 29 CFR 4.156 says the term service employee excludes those people and nobody else, and job title doesn't matter.

Your site supervisor who fills posts is almost certainly covered. The executive test needs management as the primary duty, regularly directing two or more full-time employees or the equivalent, real weight on hiring and firing, and pay on a salary basis. A working supervisor who spends most shifts on post fails the primary duty part. We had the same setup on a federal building job and priced our post-filling supervisor as a covered employee. If the wage determination has no supervisor class, you request a conformance through the contracting officer under FAR 52.222-41.

The scheduler and payroll clerk are clerical work, which fails the administrative test, and 29 CFR 4.150 covers anyone doing duties necessary to the performance of the contract, not just the guards. If the clerk splits time across several contracts, keep records of the hours on this one.

Health and welfare goes to every covered employee. 29 CFR 4.175 says it's owed on all hours paid, including vacation, sick and holiday hours, up to 40 hours a week and 2,080 hours a year per contract, unless the determination says otherwise. Price it into the supervisor rate too.