Pennsylvania certified payroll: the LLC-25, weekly filing, and when Davis-Bacon takes over

Pennsylvania's rules come from the Prevailing Wage Act, 43 P.S. 165-1 et seq., and the Department of Labor & Industry's regulations at 34 Pa. Code chapter 9. L&I's Bureau of Labor Law Compliance sets the rates and enforces the Act. The public body that awards the contract collects the payrolls.

Which jobs are covered

A public work under the Act is construction, reconstruction, demolition, alteration, or repair work, other than maintenance, done under contract and paid for in whole or in part with a public body's funds, where the estimated cost of the total project is more than $25,000. L&I's FAQ adds that a project can't be split into pieces to get under that figure.

Locally funded highway and bridge projects contracted after January 1, 2014 have a higher threshold: L&I's FAQ puts it at a total cost over $100,000.

Public bodies include the Commonwealth, its authorities and agencies, state and state-related universities, and political subdivisions: counties, cities, boroughs, incorporated towns, townships, and school districts.

The $25,000 test is on the whole project. A $9,000 subcontract on a $400,000 school renovation is covered.

How and when you file

To whom. The public body that awarded the contract. L&I's FAQ lists "complete and submit weekly certified payrolls to the public body" among every contractor's and subcontractor's duties, and tells public bodies to require weekly filing. L&I and the public body can inspect your payroll records at reasonable hours.

How often. Weekly. The regulation, 34 Pa. Code 9.103(12), requires each contractor and subcontractor to file a statement each week and a final statement at the end of the work, under oath, "in form satisfactory to the Secretary," certifying that workers were paid in strict conformity with the contract, or listing the wages still owed to each worker. Neither the Act nor chapter 9 sets a number of days after payday. The contract may.

The form. L&I's form is the LLC-25, Weekly Payroll Certification for Public Works Projects. Page 1 is the payroll. Page 2 is the Certified Statement of Compliance and a fringe benefits explanation. The form says the notarization is completed on the first and last submissions only, and everything else weekly. Use the LLC-25 unless the awarding body tells you in writing that it will take another format.

No-work weeks. The LLC-25 has no box for a week with no work, and the regulation speaks of a statement each week and a final one. Ask the awarding body how it wants idle weeks reported, and do it the same way every time. Handling weeks with no work.

Paying weekly. The contract must require that workers be paid at least once a week (34 Pa. Code 9.103(6)), so a biweekly pay cycle doesn't fit a Pennsylvania public works job. Paying by lump sum or piece rate violates the Act regardless of what it averages out to per hour.

What the LLC-25 asks for that the WH-347 doesn't

Page 1 carries the same hours, rates, fringe, gross, and deductions as the WH-347, laid out differently. Two columns are new:

• Apprentice rate as a percentage of the journeyworker rate.
• Check number for each worker's pay.

Fringe on the LLC-25 is one column per worker, marked C for cash or FB for plan contributions.

On page 2, things the federal Statement of Compliance doesn't ask:

• Who you contracted with: the awarding agency, contractor, or subcontractor, and an acknowledgment that the prevailing wage requirements and rates are in the contract and that you must pass them into any lower-tier subcontract.
• A debarment certification for your firm and for any subcontractor you use.
• Your legal name and business address, your type of entity (and state of incorporation for a corporation), and the name, title, and address of each owner, partner, or officer.
• Fringe benefit types and hourly contributions: medical or hospital care, pension, life insurance, disability, vacation and holiday, and other.
• A notary's seal on the first and last payrolls.

The LLC-25 asks for no worker addresses and no Social Security numbers.

Other rules that touch payroll

Contractor registration. Neither the Prevailing Wage Act nor 34 Pa. Code chapter 9 has a contractor registration requirement.

Apprentices. Only apprentices in a program registered with and approved by the Pennsylvania Apprenticeship and Training Council can be paid an apprentice rate on the job, in the numbers that program allows. Anyone else using the tools of a craft gets the journeyman rate. L&I's FAQ says to keep signed indentures for each apprentice and the Council's approvals.

Posting. Post the project's rates for the whole period of construction at the site and where you pay wages. The notice must give the project name, the public body, the classifications and rates with the effective dates of changes, and a statement of the workers' right to protest underpayment to L&I within 3 months.

Records. Keep each worker's name, classification, daily hours, hourly rate including benefits, and deductions, plus timecards, for 2 years from the date of payment.

Penalties. A contractor who verifies a weekly statement under oath knowing it to be false commits a misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $2,500, up to 5 years in prison, or both (34 Pa. Code 9.110(c)). L&I's FAQ lists 3 years of debarment from public works for intentional violations.

Jobs with federal money

Section 15 of the Act says it has "no application to any public works subject to" the Davis-Bacon Act. L&I's FAQ lists, among the projects excluded from Pennsylvania prevailing wage, those where the federal government requires federal prevailing wages and the cost is over $2,000. On those jobs you pay the Davis-Bacon rates and file the WH-347 up the federal chain to the prime and the contracting agency. If a contract carries both sets of wage terms anyway, ask the awarding body in writing which rates and which payroll it requires. Whether Davis-Bacon applies to your job.

What CertifiedHours does here

CertifiedHours produces the federal WH-347, plus an LCPtracker upload file and a CSV, for federally funded work, which in Pennsylvania is the Davis-Bacon side. It does not produce the LLC-25 or its notarized Statement of Compliance, and it does not collect full Social Security numbers or home addresses. On a state-funded Pennsylvania job, file the LLC-25 with the awarding body.