On a Davis-Bacon job you file a certified payroll report every single week, for every worker, within 7 days of the end of each pay period, and you sign a statement of compliance saying it is true. Signing that statement when it is not true is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. 1001. Most of the trouble on prevailing wage work is not underpayment. It is paperwork that does not match the work.
This is general information, not legal advice. Public works compliance is one of the few areas where a mistake in a form costs real money, so use it to know what to ask, not as the last word.
Who has to do this
The Davis-Bacon Act covers federally funded or federally assisted construction contracts over $2,000 (40 U.S.C. 3141 to 3148). The related acts extend it into a long list of federally assisted programs, which is how a job with no obvious federal connection turns out to be covered.
Every contractor and subcontractor on the job files their own. Being three tiers down does not exempt you. If you are a sub, your reports go up the chain the way the contract says, and the prime is the one being chased when yours is late.
Most states run their own prevailing wage law for state-funded work, usually called a little Davis-Bacon act. The forms and the thresholds differ, the discipline does not.
The weekly cycle
- Find the wage determination before you bid. They are published on SAM.gov, by county and by craft. The rate is not one number: it is a base rate plus a fringe rate, and both are part of what you owe.
- Classify each worker by the work they actually performed, not by their job title and not by what is convenient. This is the single biggest source of underpayment findings, and it is usually honest rather than fraudulent: a laborer who spent Tuesday doing carpentry gets the carpenter rate for Tuesday.
- Record hours daily, split regular and overtime. Certified payroll wants the day-by-day, not a weekly total.
- Pay weekly. Davis-Bacon requires it, and a monthly payroll cycle does not survive contact with the rule.
- File within 7 days of the end of the pay period (29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)), to whoever the contract names.
What goes on the form
Form WH-347 is the DOL's version. Many agencies accept an equivalent, and many large jobs run an electronic system instead, but the content is the same in all of them:
- Employee name and work classification, matching a classification on the wage determination
- Hours worked each day, regular and overtime separated
- Rate of pay, and the fringe rate alongside it
- Gross wages earned on this project
- Every deduction, itemized, with anything unusual explained
- Net wages paid for the week
- Fringe benefits, either paid in cash or contributed to a bona fide plan
- The signed statement of compliance on the back
The statement of compliance is the whole point of the exercise. The columns are just numbers until somebody signs to say they are accurate and that nobody has had wages kicked back to them. That signature is what makes it "certified", and it is what turns a clerical error into a false statement if you sign it knowing it is wrong.
The four places it goes wrong
Classification drift. A worker doing two crafts in a week needs both, split by hours. Paying the lower rate for the whole week is underpayment even if the average looks right.
Fringe benefits treated as optional. The fringe is not a bonus. You either pay it in cash on top of the base rate, or you contribute it to a genuine benefit plan, and either way it shows on the form. Paying base only and calling the rest "we give them a good deal" is a finding.
Apprentices used as cheap labor. An apprentice may be paid a percentage of the journeyman rate ONLY if they are registered in an approved apprenticeship program, and the number of apprentices you can run against your journeymen is limited by that program's own standards. An unregistered apprentice is a journeyman for pay purposes, at full rate, for every hour worked. Check the ratio against the program's standards before the crew is on site, because it is not a number you can fix retrospectively.
Owners and working supervisors. A working owner who swings a hammer on a covered job is doing covered work for those hours. Leaving yourself off the report because you are the boss is not a category the form recognizes.
What happens when it is wrong
The consequences run in a sequence, and each step is worse than the last.
- Withheld payment. The contracting agency can hold contract funds to cover the shortfall. This is the common one, it is fast, and it lands on the prime whether the mistake was theirs or a sub's.
- Back wages plus liquidated damages for the workers affected.
- Debarment. Barred from federal work for a period. For a contractor whose pipeline is public work, this is the end of the business rather than a fine.
- Criminal exposure for a false statement of compliance, under 18 U.S.C. 1001.
Note where the risk actually sits. A prime who does not check their subs' certified payroll is carrying those subs' errors in their own withheld payments.
Before you file, three checks
- Are you on the current form? DOL has revised the WH-347 and the instructions before, and an agency can reject a superseded version. Pull the current form and instructions from dol.gov rather than reusing last year's PDF from your desktop, and check the version line at the top before your next submission.
- Does every classification on your report exist on the wage determination for that county? If the work does not fit any listed classification, there is a process for requesting an additional classification and rate, and it happens before the work, not after.
- Does your total package equal or beat base plus fringe, per classification, per hour? Not per week and not on average.
Common questions
What is certified payroll?
A weekly payroll report filed on a Davis-Bacon or state prevailing wage job, showing each worker's classification, daily hours, pay, deductions and fringe benefits, with a signed statement of compliance certifying it is accurate.
How often do I file certified payroll?
Weekly, for every week any work is performed, and within 7 days of the end of each pay period under 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3). Every contractor and subcontractor files their own, however far down the chain they sit.
Do I have to use Form WH-347?
Not always. WH-347 is the DOL form and many agencies accept an equivalent or require their own electronic system. The required content is the same either way, including the signed statement of compliance.
Can I pay the fringe benefit in cash?
Yes. You either pay it in cash on top of the base rate or contribute it to a bona fide benefit plan. What you cannot do is pay the base rate alone and treat the fringe as optional.
What rate do apprentices get on prevailing wage work?
A percentage of the journeyman rate, but only if they are registered in an approved program, and only within the ratio that program's standards allow. An unregistered apprentice is owed the full journeyman rate.
What happens if my certified payroll is wrong?
The agency can withhold contract funds to cover the shortfall, and you may owe back wages and liquidated damages. Serious or repeated cases lead to debarment from federal work, and a knowingly false statement of compliance is a federal crime.
Where these figures come from
The $2,000 threshold and the framework come from the Davis-Bacon Act, 40 U.S.C. 3141 to 3148, with the implementing rules at 29 CFR Parts 1, 3 and 5. The weekly filing requirement and the 7-day deadline are at 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3). The criminal exposure for a false statement of compliance is 18 U.S.C. 1001. Wage determinations are published on SAM.gov.
One thing is deliberately not stated here. DOL has revised the WH-347 and its instructions over time, and there is a version and transition question we could not settle from a primary source on the day this was written: the DOL forms page carries only its 2009 applicability language and says nothing about a later revision. Rather than print a compliance deadline we cannot stand behind, this guide tells you to check the current form on dol.gov before you file, which is the right habit regardless of what the answer turns out to be.
The apprentice ratio is described here as a mechanism rather than a number, because the limit comes from the standards of the registered program the apprentice is enrolled in, not from a single figure that applies everywhere.
The honest bit
Certified payroll has a reputation as bureaucracy for its own sake, and on a small job it can feel like it. It is not. The reason it exists is that public money used to be spent on construction where the lowest bidder won by paying people less than everyone else in the area, and the whole apparatus is there to stop the race to the bottom that follows.
The practical reading for a small contractor is simpler than the rulebook suggests. Prevailing wage jobs pay well, they pay on time because the agency is the customer, and the barrier to entry is paperwork rather than skill. Most contractors who avoid public work avoid it because of this form.
Which means the form is the moat. Learn it once, on a small job, and a category of work opens up that half your competitors have decided is too much hassle.
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