Prevailing wage / certified payroll

Prevailing wage is the legally required minimum wage-and-benefits rate, set by trade classification and locality, that contractors must pay workers on government-funded construction projects — under the federal Davis-Bacon Act and similar state laws. Certified payroll is the weekly compliance report proving it: for every worker on a covered project, the contractor files a report (federally, form WH-347) listing classification, hours, rate, gross pay and deductions, signed under penalty of perjury. Getting it wrong is expensive — misclassifying a worker or missing fringe requirements can trigger back-wage assessments, withheld payments and debarment from public work. Because the reports must reconcile with actual time records and job costs, contractors doing public work typically generate certified payroll directly from their payroll and job-costing system; DesignFlow Build produces WH-347 reports from recorded time entries.

Related term: Job costing