Author: Contemporaries Team
The greatest reason for partnering with a company that holds a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) certification is that most federally funded government contracts require such collaboration.
By subcontracting with a staffing firm such as Contemporaries, Inc., you will not only fulfill the DBE requirement, but you can also keep your full-time employee numbers down, because the agency will provide and hire quality contract staff for a specific project or program. This feature is particularly valuable to global or out of state large contractors who may be unfamiliar with the Bay State job market.
The DBE program itself was started in 1983 through an act of Congress, as a means to help create and grow small businesses. The program also allows these smaller entities to share in the public contract funding which would otherwise go exclusively to sizable organizations.
The program requires large (prime) companies to utilize the services of a DBE certified company in order to fulfill the contractual obligations. There is usually a percentage of the contract’s whole worth which must be dedicated to a DBE certified business or businesses. The percentages can range from 1% to 30% of the entire contract.
In Massachusetts the DBE program is administered through the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), and in order to become a DBE the criteria includes such requirements as the entity must be a small, independent business, owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.
If, for example, a $10 million contract calls for various engineers, a Senior Project Manager, support workers as well as supervisors, staffing firms like Contemporaries, can not only find and vet individuals with the right skill sets and experience for the job, but in the event a prime contractor has already identified individuals they would like to bring on just for project, the individuals can be payrolled through Contemporaries. That way, firms like Contemporaries can source or payroll people, handling not only a weekly salary, but Unemployment compensation, Social Security, Workman’s Comp insurance, taxes, as well as the Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML). Incidentally, all Contemporaries employees are W2 workers.
Three final thoughts on doing business with DBEs in Massachusetts.
- As a prime contractor, do negotiate with your potential DBE subcontractor. The relationship should be reciprocal, with the prime contractor receiving credit for using a certified DBE company, and the entity receiving a portion of the profits for providing goods or services.
- Do confirm that the company has an active DBE certification. You can search the Massachusetts’ UCPs online DBE/ACDBE directory which can be found here.
- If you have been using a single DBE certified entity for years, why not try a new one, or add one you haven’t used before? You may receive additional hidden value in addition to fulfilling the program’s mission by helping other small businesses to grow.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay