Curry

Appellants WSB Electric and J.R. Roberts are licensed contractors who perform public works contracts in the state of California. They brought suit against the California Department of Industrial Relations (“DIR”) and its officers challenging the state’s enforcement of its prevailing wage law for public works contracts, Cal. Labor Code § 1770 et seq. They claim that the state law is preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) because California’s prevailing wage rate is measured by reference to the prevailing cash wage plus the prevailing benefits contributions of employers in a given locality.

The district court found that ERISA does not preempt the prevailing wage statute, and appellants filed a timely appeal. We affirm.

I

This case originally began in 1989, when both contractors filed separate actions to enjoin the DIR from enforcing California’s prevailing wage law for state public works projects. The state’s prevailing wage law requires that public works contractors pay their employees a minimum wage, called the “prevailing rate of per diem wages.” Cal. Labor Code §§ 1771 & 1773. This prevailing wage is determined on a county-by-eounty basis,…