Apprentice wage calculator for Davis-Bacon jobs

Who may be paid the apprentice rate

Only a worker individually registered in an apprenticeship program registered with the Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship or a recognized state apprenticeship agency, or one in the first 90 days of probationary employment who has been certified by the Office of Apprenticeship or the state apprenticeship agency as eligible for probationary employment. Everyone else who does the work of the craft is a journeyworker for pay purposes, whatever they are called on the job. That is 29 CFR 5.5(a)(4)(i).

How the rate is set

The program standards give a wage progression as percentages of the journeyworker rate: 50 percent in the first period, 55 in the second, and so on. The percentage is applied to the journeyworker basic rate on the wage determination for the classification, not to whatever the program’s own wage schedule says in dollars. Overtime is 1.5 times the resulting apprentice basic rate.

Fringe follows the program

Apprentices get fringe according to the program standards. If the standards say nothing about fringe, the apprentice gets the full fringe amount from the wage determination, the same as a journeyworker. If the standards set fringe at the same percentage as the wage, or at a stated dollar figure, that applies. The calculator offers all 3.

The ratio and the paperwork

The number of apprentices on the site cannot exceed the ratio in the program standards, per craft, measured each day. An apprentice over the ratio is paid the journeyworker rate for that day. And 3 documents belong in the project file before the first payroll: the program’s registration, the apprentice’s individual registration, and the standards showing the progression and ratio. Without them the rate is not available. The apprentice rules in full.