Reading a Davis-Bacon wage determination, and what to do when your trade isn't on it

The wage determination is the document that turns "prevailing wage" into numbers. It is attached to the contract, it lists every classification the Department of Labor has surveyed for that county and type of construction, and it gives a basic hourly rate and a fringe rate for each. Column 3 and column 6A of your WH-347 have to match it.

Where they come from

The Wage and Hour Division surveys contractors in an area about the wages paid on construction projects, by county and by 4 types of construction: building, residential, heavy, and highway. The results become a general wage determination for that county and type.

Since the 2023 rule, a rate prevails if it is paid to a majority of workers in a classification, or, failing a majority, to at least 30 percent of them. Only when no rate reaches 30 percent does the Department use a weighted average. Rates that come from collective bargaining agreements are identified with a union local's abbreviation in the classification code; rates from open-shop surveys carry the code SU, for survey; those are majority or weighted-average rates computed from survey data, which can include union data.

General determinations are published on SAM.gov and have no expiration date. They are updated by modifications when new survey data or new collective bargaining rates come in. Since the 2023 rule, non-union survey rates that have grown stale can also be adjusted for inflation, no more often than every 3 years.

Reading the number

A determination is identified like this: OH20250012, sometimes followed by Mod 3 and a date.

The first 2 letters are the state. The next 4 are the year of the annual edition; every determination gets a new number each January, so go by the number and modification in your contract. The last 4 are a sequence number. The modification number counts revisions since publication. Your contract incorporates one specific determination at one specific modification; write both on the WH-347 header so the reviewer checks your rates against the right version.

Reading the rates

Each classification line shows a name, sometimes with a group or a zone, then 2 figures: Rates and Fringes.

ELEC0212-001 06/01/2025
                              Rates    Fringes
ELECTRICIAN..............$ 42.15     18.40

The code before the date tells you the source: ELEC0212 means the rate is IBEW Local 212's collectively bargained rate, and the date after it is the agreement's effective date, and the date is the agreement's effective date. A line that reads SUOH2019-004 08/21/2019 is an open-shop survey rate from 2019.

Basic rate plus fringe is the minimum total compensation. How you split it between cash and benefits is your choice. Cash versus plan.

Some classifications have footnotes for premiums: a percentage above the base for hazardous work, or a different fringe for apprentices. Read the whole entry, including anything below the rate table for that craft.

Group and zone designations matter. "Laborer Group 1" and "Laborer Group 3" are different classifications with different rates. Operating engineers are often listed by equipment group. Use the exact label on your WH-347; a reviewer will look for the string.

Which version applies to your contract

The determination in effect when the contract is awarded is generally the one that applies for the life of the contract. The Department's FAQ puts it this way: once construction has begun, workers' rates are generally not affected when the determination is modified, except in specific cases such as a contract that adds out-of-scope work, exercises an option or adds a period of performance, or an indefinite-quantity contract that requires annual updates.

Before award, modifications published before bid opening apply, with a narrow exception for modifications published fewer than 10 days before bid opening when there was not reasonable time to notify bidders.

So on a 3-year project you may be paying rates the determination has since raised. That is correct under the contract clause. On a job with option years, each option can bring in the current determination.

A determination can also be wrong for the project. If the contracting agency used a building determination on a highway job, or a determination for the wrong county, the Department can require correction after award. Raise a mismatch with the contracting officer as early as you can.

More than one determination on a job

Projects that combine construction types can carry more than one determination. A building with substantial site work may have a building schedule and a heavy schedule. The contracting officer is responsible for telling contractors which schedule applies to which work. Ask before you bid rather than after the first payroll.

When your trade is not on the determination

Determinations list what the survey found. A classification your crew works under may be missing, and you cannot borrow the nearest one. The classification has to be added through a conformance.

A conformance is requested after award, for the specific contract, using Standard Form 1444, "Request for Authorization of Additional Classification and Rate." The contractor prepares it, the contracting agency reviews and submits it, and the Wage and Hour Division's Branch of Construction Wage Determinations decides.

Three criteria must all be met:

1. The work to be performed by the requested classification is not performed by a classification already in the wage determination.
2. The classification is used in the area by the construction industry.
3. The proposed wage rate, including fringe, bears a reasonable relationship to the wage rates in the determination.

"Reasonable relationship" is judged against the rates for comparable classifications in the same determination. A skilled craft rate is compared with other skilled craft rates in the same survey; a proposed helper rate below every laborer rate will be refused.

The Department responds to most requests within 30 days, by email to the contracting agency, which then passes the determination to the contractor. If the Department has not responded in 30 days, the request is still pending; silence is not approval.

Two practical rules. Ask the contracting agency's labor advisor before submitting if you are unsure whether an existing classification covers the work; a conformance that fails the first criterion is denied. And pay the workers at the proposed rate from the first day they perform the work. A conformance, once approved, applies from the first day the classification was used on the contract, and if the approved rate is higher than what you proposed, the difference is owed back to the first day.

If the work is known before bids, the agency can instead request a project wage determination on Standard Form 308, which takes at least 30 days and expires 180 days after issuance unless incorporated into a contract.

Conformed classifications and the WH-347

Once approved, the conformed classification is used on your payroll like any other. Write the classification name as it appears in the approval letter, put the approval letter in the project file with the wage determination, and note "conformed" in the remarks on the first payroll where it appears. Conformances apply only to the specific contract; the general determination is not changed, though the Department may add frequently conformed classifications to future general determinations.

Where to get the determination

The contracting agency includes it in the solicitation and the contract. A sub gets it from the prime. The Department's FAQ says so directly: subcontractors should request it from the prime contractor or agency. You can also look it up on SAM.gov by state, county, and construction type, but the version in your contract, with its modification number, is the one that governs.

If you use CertifiedHours, you can upload the determination PDF when you set up a project and pick your classifications from the list it reads out, with names and rates copied from the document instead of typed.