New York certified payroll: the DOL Certified Payroll portal, Article 8, and federal jobs

New York certified payroll goes to the State Department of Labor's Bureau of Public Work through its Certified Payroll portal. It is separate from the federal WH-347, asks for worker data the federal form leaves off, and since January 1, 2026 it has been electronic.

The law and what it covers

Article 8 of the Labor Law, starting at section 220, is the prevailing wage law for construction, reconstruction, maintenance and repair of public property let by the state and its political subdivisions. The Department of Labor says there is no threshold contract dollar amount. The agency that awards the contract (the "department of jurisdiction") can be a state agency, a county, city, town or village, a school district, a public authority, or a public benefit corporation.

Some private projects are covered too:

• Section 224-a. Projects over $5 million in total cost where public funds are 30% or more of construction costs, for contracts signed on or after January 1, 2022. Direct federal funding doesn't count toward the 30%.
• Sections 224-d, 224-e and 224-f. Certain renewable energy, broadband, and climate risk or energy transition projects, plus roadway excavations.

Rates come from the prevailing rate schedule, published county by county and effective July 1 to June 30. Each project gets a prevailing wage case number (PRC number), which you need for the portal.

New York City is different. The Department of Labor's FAQ says public work performed by or for New York City, and roadway excavation under a City permit, goes through NYC's own online certified payroll database.

Filing through the Certified Payroll portal

Section 220-j requires each contractor and subcontractor to submit payroll records electronically to the Department of Labor at least once every 30 days while work is being performed and within 30 days after the final day. The Department's announcement and user guide date the requirement from January 1, 2026; the 2025-2026 rate schedule says December 31, 2025. Submitting to the Department satisfies the department of jurisdiction's duty to collect payrolls, but the FAQ says agencies may add their own local or contract requirements. The employer guide calls submission a condition of payment.

Access. You log in with an NY.gov account. Setting up a project takes your FEIN, your New York contractor registration number, the PRC number, and, for public improvement projects only, a copy of the payment bond.

Reporting. Payrolls are weekly, grouped into 30-day reporting cycles of up to 5 weeks each, and the dashboard shows each due date. You can edit an entry until the due date; once you submit a report you can't amend it. At submission you tick the attestations in the Acknowledge and Declaration step and upload documentation of any supplemental benefits.

2 ways in:

• Manual entry. You add each employee, then enter their work category, hours, rates, benefits, deductions, and wages. After the first week you can copy a prior week's payroll and edit it.
• XML upload. The file follows the Department's schema (NYDOL_CertPayroll.xsd). Each file covers 1 project and 1 week, with up to 500 employee records. You can only upload to a week that has no data entered yet. The Department says CSV files and spreadsheets are not accepted, and there is no API.

Weeks with no work. The Department says you must report them. Tick No Work Week for a single week, or set up a work pause covering a run of weeks and resume reporting when it ends. For days off inside a week with work, enter 0 hours on the regular payroll. On your last week you tick Final Work Week and choose a reason code. How no-work weeks work on the federal side.

Penalties. Section 220-j sets a penalty of $100 for each day you're in violation, which can't be charged until you are 14 days past the deadline. Under section 220, willfully failing to file is a class E felony, and willfully filing late carries a civil penalty of up to $1,000 a day. As of October 2026 the FAQ says the Department is using its discretion not to issue fines for late payrolls while contractors adjust to the system.

Worker data the WH-347 doesn't carry

Section 220(3-a) requires payrolls showing each worker's name and address, hours and days worked, occupations, hourly wage rates, and supplements. The XML schema shows what the portal collects for each worker:

• First, middle and last name.
• Home address: street, city, state, and 5-digit ZIP.
• Last 4 digits of the SSN, or date of birth for a worker who has no SSN or doesn't know it. One or the other, never both.
• Whether the worker is a New York registered apprentice.
• Work category, straight time and overtime rates, and straight time and overtime hours by date.
• Up to 10 deductions, gross wages, and net wages.
• Supplements by type (health and welfare, vacation and holiday, apprenticeship and training, pension, or other) with straight time and overtime hourly amounts.

The portal does not take full Social Security numbers. The home address is the main difference from the federal form: 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii) bars full SSNs and home addresses from the weekly WH-347 and uses an identifying number such as the last 4 digits. How the federal identifying number works.

Registration and other rules that bear on payroll

Contractor registration. Under section 220-i, since December 30, 2024 every contractor must be registered with the Department of Labor before bidding on public work, and every contractor and subcontractor before starting work on a public work or covered private project. Registration is $200 for 2 years, with a discount for MWBE and veteran-owned businesses. The certificate's registration number is the one the portal asks for.

Overtime. At a minimum, work over 8 hours in a day or more than 5 days in a week is overtime on public work. Each trade's own overtime and holiday rules are in the rate schedule, and some trades owe supplements at a premium rate for overtime hours. Overtime on prevailing wage jobs.

Apprentices. A worker is an apprentice only if individually registered in a program registered with the Department of Labor. Anyone else on an apprentice rate must be paid the rate for the work actually performed. Allowed ratios are in the rate schedule (for laborers, 1:1 then 1:3).

Pay stubs and records. The employer guide says you must tell every worker their hourly prevailing wage and supplement rates in writing with every pay stub, and keep original certified payroll records for at least 6 years.

Rate schedule. The prime gives each sub a copy of the project's schedule and gets a verified statement that you received it.

Jobs with federal money

The Department's FAQ says federal projects where state prevailing wage law doesn't apply don't file through the portal. When a project is covered by both Article 8 and Davis-Bacon, the U.S. Department of Labor says to pay whichever rate is higher, classification by classification, and meet whichever requirement protects workers more.

The 2 filings stay separate:

• Federal: a weekly WH-347 sent up the chain to the prime, with no home addresses or full SSNs.
• State: the Department of Labor portal at least every 30 days, with addresses and last 4 digits.

The hours and pay are the same on both. How the other states compare.

What CertifiedHours does here

CertifiedHours produces the federal WH-347, plus an LCPtracker upload file and a CSV, for federally funded work in New York. It does not file in the Department of Labor's Certified Payroll portal or produce its XML, and it does not collect home addresses, which the portal requires. For Article 8 work, file directly in the portal. Using the LCPtracker file.