When it applies
Federally funded or assisted construction contracts over $2,000 trigger the Davis-Bacon Act: workers on the site must be paid at least the prevailing wage for their labor classification in that county, a published rate with two parts, base hourly plus fringe. Most states run parallel 'little Davis-Bacon' laws for state-funded work, with their own thresholds and forms. If your contract or your GC's flow-down clauses mention Davis-Bacon, prevailing wage, or certified payroll, this is you, including as a subcontractor. Subs are fully covered; the GC's compliance duty flows down.
What you must actually do
- Find the wage determination for the project (it's in the contract documents) and match every worker to the right classification, 'electrician,' 'laborer,' 'operator' each carry different rates, and misclassification is the #1 violation
- Pay at least base + fringe for each classification: fringe can be paid as cash on the check or via bona fide benefits (health, pension), with the accounting to prove whichever you chose
- File weekly certified payroll, federally, Form WH-347 (or equivalent): every covered worker, classification, hours by day, rate, gross, deductions, net, signed with a compliance certification. Weekly, not monthly, every week you had workers on site, including 'no work' weeks on some contracts
- Keep the backing records (timecards, fringe documentation) for the required period, audits happen years later
The mistakes that actually hurt contractors
- Classification games, paying laborer rates for craft work; agencies interview workers on site and compare answers to your forms
- Apprentice rates without registered apprentices, reduced rates require enrollment in a registered program, not just a junior employee
- Fringe forgotten, the published fringe is owed on top of base, in cash or benefits; skipping it is the most common honest error, and it's back wages
- Owner-operators and 1099 'subs' on site without the paperwork, prevailing wage generally can't be 1099'd away; misclassification on public work brings both agencies at once
- Falsification, the certification is signed under penalty; knowingly false forms escalate from back wages to debarment (banned from public work) and, at the extreme, criminal exposure. Every horror story starts with 'we fixed the numbers'
Making it routine
Contractors who run public work profitably treat certified payroll as a weekly production task riding on clean time tracking: hours by worker by classification by day, captured in the field, flowing to payroll and the WH-347 without re-typing. Payroll platforms have certified payroll modules; the discipline is the timekeeping upstream. It's a workflow we set up and run for trades clients who bid public jobs, the weekly form becomes an output of good books rather than a Friday scramble. Payroll Administration for Small Businesses
Frequently asked questions
Is prevailing wage the same as union scale?
Often similar (determinations frequently derive from union agreements), but it's its own published number and applies regardless of union status. You don't need to be union; you need to pay the determination.
Does a small maintenance job at a school trigger this?
Depends on funding source, contract value, and whether it's 'construction, alteration, or repair' under the rules, the contract documents answer it. When the paperwork is silent, ask before mobilizing, in writing.
Worth bidding public work at all, at my size?
If your books can produce true labor costs and your payroll can produce the weekly form, yes: published rates, reliable payment, repeat volume. The contractors who should skip it are the ones improvising payroll. Electrical
Primary sources