WH-347 certified payroll, explained

Certified payroll is a weekly, sworn record of exactly who worked on a public construction project, what they did, how many hours they put in, and what you paid them. The "certified" part matters: an officer of your company signs a statement, under penalty of law, attesting that the payroll is accurate and that every worker was paid at least the required wage.

It is generally required whenever you perform construction on projects funded or assisted by the federal government above $2,000, under the Davis-Bacon Act and a family of "Davis-Bacon Related Acts." The idea behind these laws is straightforward: on work paid for with public money, contractors must pay prevailing wages (the local going rate for each type of construction work) so that public projects don't undercut local labor standards.

Federal work is not the whole story. Many states have their own prevailing-wage statutes (often called "little Davis-Bacon" laws) that apply to state- and locally-funded construction. The specific triggers, dollar thresholds, and filing mechanics vary by jurisdiction and change over time, so always confirm the requirements for the awarding agency on your contract rather than assuming the federal rules apply everywhere. As a practical matter, if a bid package references prevailing wage, a wage determination, or certified payroll, plan on filing.

On federal work, the standard reporting document is Form WH-347, published by the U.S. Department of Labor. It is optional in the sense that agencies may accept an equivalent format, but it defines the information you must report, so most contractors simply use it (or software that produces the same data). It has two parts that work together.

The payroll page is a grid: one row per worker, columns for hours worked each day of the week, pay rate, gross earned, itemized deductions, and net pay actually paid. It also identifies the project, the contract, and the specific week ending date.

The Statement of Compliance is the back page, a short certification an owner or authorized officer signs each week. By signing it you swear that the payroll is correct, that everyone was paid no less than the applicable prevailing wage for their classification, that fringe benefits were paid as stated, and that no unlawful deductions were taken. This signature is the whole point of "certified" payroll; an unsigned payroll is just a report, and submitting a false one carries real legal exposure.

Certified payrolls are filed weekly (within seven days after the regular payment date for that pay period, per 29 CFR 5.5) and go to the contracting agency or the prime contractor (if you are a subcontractor, you usually submit through the prime). You file for every week you have workers on site, and many agencies also expect a "no work" payroll for weeks you were on the project's books but performed no covered labor.

The heart of Davis-Bacon compliance is paying each worker correctly for the work classification they actually performed. A wage determination attached to the contract lists the required hourly base rate and a fringe benefit amount for each classification: roofer, laborer, operator, and so on. You must pay at least both.

The base rate is the cash wage. The fringe can be satisfied one of two ways: by making bona fide benefit contributions on the worker's behalf (health insurance, retirement, an approved training fund), or by paying the fringe amount as additional cash in the paycheck. Either way, the total of cash wage plus fringe credit must meet or exceed the determination. Forgetting the fringe entirely is one of the most common (and most expensive) mistakes contractors make.

A few mechanics that trip people up:

• Overtime. Hours over the applicable weekly threshold are generally paid at a premium on the base rate; fringe is typically not multiplied for overtime, but confirm the rule for your jurisdiction.
• Split classifications. If a worker performs two classifications in one week, you report and pay each classification for the hours actually spent in it. You cannot blend them into one rate.
• Gross vs. net. The form shows gross earnings (rate × hours, all projects), then itemizes deductions, then the net actually paid. If a worker splits time between a covered project and other work, you disclose the project hours and the weekly total so the reviewer can see the whole picture.
• Apprentices. Apprentices may be paid a reduced rate only if they are enrolled in a registered apprenticeship program and reported at the correct ratio and level. Everyone else must be paid the full journeyman rate for the classification.

Reviewers see the same errors over and over. Watch for these:

• Wrong classification. Paying a roofer’s helper as a laborer, or lumping mixed work into one rate. Classify by the work performed, not by job title convenience.
• Forgetting fringe. Paying only the base cash rate and omitting the fringe amount, a direct underpayment even if the base looks right.
• Math and transcription errors. Hours that don’t foot, rates that don’t match the determination, or net pay that doesn’t reconcile to gross minus deductions.
• Missing the weekly deadline. Certified payroll is due every week; a late or skipped week (including "no work" weeks) can hold up the prime’s payment and yours.
• Unsigned Statement of Compliance. A payroll page without the signed certification is incomplete and will be returned.
• Misreporting apprentices. Claiming a reduced rate for someone not properly registered, or exceeding the allowed apprentice-to-journeyman ratio.

The clean way to run certified payroll is to capture time once, at the source, coded to the project and classification, and let the WH-347 fall out of that same data. When the hours your crew logs in the field are the hours that hit job cost and the hours that feed the payroll form, there is nothing to re-type and nothing to reconcile.

That is how SitewideOps approaches it. Crews log time on a mobile field app against the job and cost code; those hours flow into job costing at a burdened rate and into certified payroll reporting that generates the WH-347 with prevailing wage and fringe applied, from one set of records, not three. You still review and sign the Statement of Compliance; the form just isn’t built by hand anymore.