Davis-Bacon: federal work over $2,000, weekly certified payroll

Two thousand dollars. That is the threshold at which a federal construction job stops being a job and becomes a compliance regime — prevailing wages, weekly pay, weekly certified payrolls, a signed certification with criminal exposure attached, and three years of records after the prime contract is done.

40 U.S.C. § 3142(a):

"The advertised specifications for every contract in excess of $2,000, to which the Federal Government or the District of Columbia is a party, for construction, alteration, or repair, including painting and decorating, of public buildings and public works of the Government or the District of Columbia that are located in a State or the District of Columbia and which requires or involves the employment of mechanics or laborers shall contain a provision stating the minimum wages to be paid various classes of laborers and mechanics"

And § 3142(b) sets the standard: the minimum wages are based on what the Secretary of Labor "determines to be prevailing for the corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics employed on projects of a character similar to the contract work in the civil subdivision of the State in which the work is to be performed".

The mechanics of all this live in 29 CFR 5.5, which is written as a set of clauses to be inserted into the contract. Below is what those clauses actually require.

The four obligations, in order

Weekly pay is a legal requirement, not a payroll preference

29 CFR 5.5(a)(1)(i):

"All laborers and mechanics employed or working upon the site of the work … will be paid unconditionally and not less often than once a week, and without subsequent deduction or rebate on any account (except such payroll deductions as are permitted by regulations issued by the Secretary of Labor under the Copeland Act (29 CFR part 3)), the full amount of basic hourly wages and bona fide fringe benefits (or cash equivalents thereof) due at time of payment computed at rates not less than those contained in the wage determination"

Two clauses in there are frequently missed.

"regardless of any contractual relationship which may be alleged to exist between the contractor and such laborers and mechanics." Calling somebody an independent contractor does not remove them from the wage determination.

Wage determinations apply whether or not they were attached. The regulation states that "the appropriate wage determinations are effective by operation of law even if they have not been attached to the contract." A missing attachment is not a defense. And the rate applies regardless of how the worker would otherwise be classified — the IRS and state tests for contractor or employee status covered elsewhere do not enter into it at all: contractor or employee: three tests, one California carve-out.

Fringe benefits count as wages: contributions made or costs reasonably anticipated for bona fide fringe benefits under 40 U.S.C. 3141(2)(B) "are considered wages paid". Contributions made for more than a weekly period, "but not less often than quarterly", under plans covering that weekly period "are deemed to be constructively made or incurred during such weekly period."

Posting: the wage determination and the poster

Same paragraph:

"The wage determination (including any additional classifications and wage rates conformed under paragraph (a)(1)(iii) of this section) and the Davis-Bacon poster (WH-1321) must be posted at all times by the contractor and its subcontractors at the site of the work in a prominent and accessible place where it can be easily seen by the workers."

Both documents. On site. At all times. This is the item most likely to be missing on the day an investigator visits, and it is the cheapest one to fix.

Certified payroll: weekly, and the prime owns all of it

Frequency — 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(A):

"The contractor or subcontractor must submit weekly, for each week in which any DBA- or Related Acts-covered work is performed, certified payrolls to the [write in name of appropriate Federal agency] if the agency is a party to the contract, but if the agency is not such a party, the contractor will submit the certified payrolls to the applicant, sponsor, owner, or other entity, as the case may be, that maintains such records"

And then the sentence every prime contractor should read twice:

"The prime contractor is responsible for the submission of all certified payrolls by all subcontractors."

Your third-tier electrical sub's missing payroll is your compliance failure.

The regulation permits electronic submission where the system requires a legally valid electronic signature and allows the contractor, the contracting agency and the Department of Labor to access the certified payrolls upon request "for at least 3 years after the work on the prime contract has been completed."

Content — 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(B). The certified payrolls must set out accurately and completely all information required to be maintained under 5.5(a)(3)(i)(B) — the records provision requires, among other things, "weekly number of hours actually worked in total and on each covered contract; deductions made; and actual wages paid."

But not the sensitive identifiers:

"full Social Security numbers and last known addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses must not be included on weekly transmittals. Instead, the certified payrolls need only include an individually identifying number for each worker ( e.g., the last four digits of the worker's Social Security number)."

A prime may still require its subs to give it full Social Security numbers and contact details for its own records, without weekly submission to the agency — the regulation says so expressly.

Form — 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(D). Form WH-347 is optional:

"The required weekly certified payroll information may be submitted using Optional Form WH-347 or in any other format desired."

The form is a convenience. The obligation is the information.

The Statement of Compliance, and what you are signing

Every certified payroll must be accompanied by a "Statement of Compliance", signed by the contractor or subcontractor or their agent who pays or supervises the payment, certifying three things (5.5(a)(3)(ii)(C)):

"( 1 ) That the certified payroll for the payroll period contains the information required … the appropriate information and basic records are being maintained … and such information and records are correct and complete; ( 2 ) That each laborer or mechanic (including each helper and apprentice) working on the contract during the payroll period has been paid the full weekly wages earned, without rebate, either directly or indirectly, and that no deductions have been made either directly or indirectly from the full wages earned, other than permissible deductions as set forth in 29 CFR part 3; and ( 3 ) That each laborer or mechanic has been paid not less than the applicable wage rates and fringe benefits or cash equivalents for the classification(s) of work actually performed, as specified in the applicable wage determination"

The signature "must be an original handwritten signature or a legally valid electronic signature" (5.5(a)(3)(ii)(E)).

And the consequence of getting it wrong (5.5(a)(3)(ii)(F)):

"The falsification of any of the above certifications may subject the contractor or subcontractor to civil or criminal prosecution under 18 U.S.C. 1001 and 31 U.S.C. 3729."

Title 18 § 1001 is the federal false statements statute. Title 31 § 3729 is the False Claims Act. A weekly form that somebody in the office signs without reading is, legally, a certification to the United States government.

Withholding: how the government collects

29 CFR 5.5(a)(2)(i) allows the agency, on its own action or on written request of an authorized representative of the Department of Labor, to withhold "so much of the accrued payments or advances as may be considered necessary to satisfy the liabilities of the prime contractor or any subcontractor for the full amount of wages and monetary relief, including interest".

And that reach extends beyond the job in question: the funds may be withheld "under this contract, any other Federal contract with the same prime contractor, or any other federally assisted contract that is subject to Davis-Bacon labor standards requirements and is held by the same prime contractor".

Separately, 5.5(a)(1)(vi) provides that "[i]n the event of a failure to pay all or part of the wages required by the contract, the contractor will be required to pay interest on any underpayment of wages."

Overtime: CWHSSA on contracts over $100,000

For contracts "in an amount in excess of $100,000 and subject to the overtime provisions of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act", the clauses in 29 CFR 5.5(b) are inserted in addition. In that paragraph, "laborers and mechanics" includes watchpersons and guards.

The requirement — 5.5(b)(1): no laborer or mechanic may be required or permitted to work in excess of forty hours in a workweek "unless such laborer or mechanic receives compensation at a rate not less than one and one-half times the basic rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of forty hours in such workweek."

The penalty — 5.5(b)(2): the contractor and any responsible subcontractor are liable for the unpaid wages and interest from the date of the underpayment, and additionally liable to the United States "for liquidated damages … in the sum of $33 for each calendar day on which such individual was required or permitted to work" in violation.

Per person, per day.

Retention: three years, and the clock starts late

29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(G): the contractor or subcontractor "must preserve all certified payrolls during the course of the work and for a period of 3 years after all the work on the prime contract is completed."

Note the trigger: after all the work on the prime contract is completed, not after your scope finished. A finishing trade off site in month four on a job that runs three years is holding records for six years.

The same three years apply to "this contract or subcontract and related documents including, without limitation, bids, proposals, amendments, modifications, and extensions" (5.5(a)(3)(iii)).

Apprentices bring their own paperwork: contractors with apprentices working under approved programs "must maintain written evidence of the registration of apprenticeship programs, the registration of the apprentices, and the ratios and wage rates prescribed in the applicable programs."

The pattern to notice

Davis-Bacon compliance is not a payroll problem with a records annex. It is a records problem with a payroll trigger, and everything it asks for is weekly, per worker, per classification, per contract — hours worked in total and on each covered contract, deductions, actual wages paid, classification of work actually performed.

That is a different shape from ordinary construction bookkeeping, which is organized by job and by month: job costing for contractors, five buckets and the burden. A business that records hours by job but not by worker, classification and week has to rebuild the data every Friday — which is also the labor rate that has to be in the bid before you sign the contract, not discovered afterwards: contractor estimate, from takeoff to a price that holds.

And the payoff is real. Federal construction pays fast — FAR 52.232-27(a)(1)(i)(A) puts progress payments at "14 days after the designated billing office receives a proper payment request", and 52.232-27(c)(1) requires the prime to pay subcontractors "not later than 7 days from receipt of payment". Fourteen days against a private-sector thirty or thirty-five is why contractors put up with the paperwork — the full FAR payment clause, including what makes an invoice proper, is in federal prompt payment: 14 days, and only for a proper invoice.

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Current as of August 29, 2026. This article describes the Davis-Bacon contract clauses in 29 CFR 5.5 and is not legal advice. It does not cover the determination and conformance of wage classifications under 29 CFR part 1 and 5.5(a)(1)(iii), apprentice and trainee ratios, the site of the work definition, Davis-Bacon Related Acts and federally assisted projects, debarment, the anti-retaliation provisions, or state prevailing wage laws — which exist in many states and apply to state-funded work. The regulation text was retrieved from the eCFR as of 2026-08-01 and checked on the date shown; verify the current text and any agency-specific supplements before relying on it.

What Zirko does: it records working times against jobs and keeps documents and files per job. Zirko does not run payroll, does not calculate prevailing wages or fringe benefits, does not produce Form WH-347 or a Statement of Compliance, does not submit anything to a federal agency, and gives no legal advice — anything a Davis-Bacon certification asserts has to come from your payroll system and be checked by a person. In the United States the business enters its own tax rates. Issued documents are immutable; a correction is a separate document.