Davis-Bacon wages are the minimum hourly wage and fringe benefit rates that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) sets for each trade on federally funded or assisted construction. If you bid that work, the wage determination in the solicitation sets the floor for every covered hour in your labor line.
The clauses that carry the wage rules flow down to every subcontract, so a subcontractor has to price them too. A flat shop rate hides how a wage determination changes the labor line, trade by trade.
Davis-Bacon wages: who pays them and on which contracts
Contractors and subcontractors on a covered contract must pay their laborers and mechanics at least the prevailing basic hourly rate and fringe benefits for the work they do. DOL's coverage page describes the reach as federally funded or assisted contracts for construction, alteration or repair, including painting and decorating, above a contract-value threshold set by law. The threshold is small, so a bid of any real size clears it. Read the exact figure on that page.
The Davis-Bacon Act itself reaches contracts the federal government signs. Other federal laws, called Related Acts, carry the same wage rules to work paid for with federal grants, loans, loan guarantees or insurance. DOL Fact Sheet 66 names the federal-aid highway acts and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act among them.
The contracting agency has the initial responsibility to decide whether a contract is covered, says DOL's prevailing wage resource book. Questions about coverage go to DOL's Wage and Hour Division for a ruling. The agency puts the labor standards clauses and the wage determination into the prime contract, and the clauses flow down to every subcontract. Each Related Act sets its own scope, so a bid from a city, a school district or a housing developer can carry federal wage rules. You do not decide coverage from the building type or the owner's name. You read the solicitation and ask the agency.
The rates apply to laborers and mechanics on the site of the work. 29 CFR 5.2 says that group includes at least workers whose duties are manual or physical, including those who use tools or perform the work of a trade. The site includes the primary construction site, secondary sites built for the project and dedicated support sites next to the work, such as a job headquarters or tool yard. A contractor's permanent home office or plant that exists apart from the contract is outside it. Sort your hours into on-site and off-site before you price, and check the current text of that section.
A foreperson counts as a laborer or mechanic for the time spent on those duties when they fill more than 20 percent of the workweek. Number 14 in DOL's FAQ excepts exempt executive, administrative and professional employees. Price a working foreman's hours on the tools at the classification for that work.
How to find the wage determination for a project
Davis-Bacon rates are not one number per state. They are lines on a dated determination for one area and one type of construction, so the document comes before the rate. Start with the bid documents, not a web search. Question numbers such as FAQ 9 point to DOL's Davis-Bacon FAQ.
Open the solicitation and the prime contract. The agency puts the applicable determinations there, and a subcontractor gets them from the prime contractor or the agency (FAQ 9). As a sub, ask the prime in writing for the determination number, modification number and publication date it priced, and write all three on your assumptions sheet with the construction type.
Open that number on SAM.gov. On the SAM.gov wage determinations page you can open a determination by its number, with an option to show only active ones, or start from a category. Davis-Bacon determinations sit under public buildings or works, and service contract determinations sit in a separate category. DOL's FAQ 2 calls SAM.gov the official source for contracting agencies, and FAQ 6 and 7 describe the move there.
Check that yours is active. Superseded versions stay searchable for information only (FAQ 7). If yours shows as superseded, or SAM.gov shows a newer modification than your documents carry, apply the timing rule below. Ask the contracting officer in writing, before the question deadline, which version bidders must price.
Look again at the 10-day mark and on bid morning. This is a habit, not a DOL rule, and it catches a modification published after you saved your copy.
There are two kinds of determination.
A general determination covers an area and a type of construction. It has no expiration date, and DOL revises it from time to time (FAQ 2 and 4).
A project determination covers one project, and DOL issues it when an agency asks for one. It expires 180 calendar days after issuance unless a contract incorporates it in that time or DOL approves an extension (FAQ 3).
If no general determination is listed for the county and construction type, the federal funding agency requests one from DOL. FAQ 8 warns that this takes at least 30 days, so ask early.
The determination in the solicitation and the award sets the minimum rates for the term of the contract (FAQ 11). DOL lists three exceptions: substantial added work outside the original scope, extra time such as an exercised option, and umbrella contracts that take the latest revision each year. Price the version the documents incorporate.
Late revisions need a calendar. For sealed bids, FAQ 5 says a revision issued at least 10 calendar days before bid opening applies. A revision inside the 10 days still applies unless the agency documents a finding that there was not reasonable time to notify bidders. On other procurement methods, a revision issued before award applies. Housing programs have their own timing rules. Say bids open on 24 June. The cutoff is 14 June, and a revision published on or before that day applies. One published from 15 to 23 June applies unless the agency documents that finding.
One project can carry more than one determination. DOL sorts construction into building, heavy, highway and residential types (FAQ 12). FAQ 38 says the contracting officer must advise contractors which schedule applies to the various construction items. If the bid package does not say, ask.
To find covered bids in the first place, see where federal solicitations are posted. Check the same three identifiers again when you are completing the owner's form.
A reading list for the determination in your bid package
A general determination has four parts, according to a DOL training deck on reading wage determinations. They are a cover sheet, the body of classifications and rates, the conformance process and a key to the rate identifiers. Read these eight things before you price. The right column names the DOL source for each.
# | Read this | Write this down | DOL source |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Who supplied it and where it sits in the package | The document, section and sender, agency or prime | FAQ 9 |
2 | What the solicitation says about it | The determination number, modification number and publication date the contract incorporates | FAQ 11 |
3 | Cover sheet: state, county, construction type and its include and exclude language | The type that covers each bid item | FAQ 12 and 38 |
4 | Record of modifications and the date on each rate line | The latest modification number with its publication date, and the effective date on the lines you use | FAQ 4 and 5 |
5 | Classification names | The listed classification for each crew position, chosen by the work performed | FAQ 1 and 14, 29 CFR 5.5(a)(1) |
6 | Base and fringe columns | Both figures, kept in separate columns | FAQ 10 and 29 |
7 | Apprentice rules | The ratio and percentages from the registered program, or from the project's locality when the program is registered elsewhere, not from the determination | FAQ 13 |
8 | Conformance route | Any trade with no listed classification, and who raises it with the agency | FAQ 3, 39 and 40 |
Table 1. Eight things to read in a wage determination, with the DOL source for each.
A few layout points save time. Lines that start with a union code show the date the rate took effect under that union agreement. Lines that start with SU come from a DOL wage survey. Per the same deck, they stay unchanged until the next survey or an index adjustment, so an old date on a line does not by itself mean the rate is out of force.
Cover-sheet wording draws the type lines. The deck's example says building excludes single-family homes and apartments up to four stories, which are residential. Heavy includes water and sewer lines but excludes power plants and refineries. The include and exclude language on your own cover sheet controls.
Row 8 is easy to skip because it matters only when a trade is missing. A project determination fits when all or virtually all of the work is done by a classification the determination does not list. The agency asks DOL for it before award (FAQ 3 and 39). For a missing trade on an otherwise covered job, the route is conformance. After award, the contractor asks the contracting officer to add the classification, with proposed rates that relate to the listed ones, and DOL must approve it.
DOL aims to reply in writing within 30 days or tell the contracting officer it needs more time, and silence is not approval. A request that reached DOL on 3 March has a 30-day mark of 2 April. The FAQ does not say whether work may start before approval. The approved rate applies from the first day anyone works in that classification (29 CFR 5.5(a)(1)(iii)(E)), so a placeholder carries the exposure.
What the wage determination changes in the labor line
The determination gives each classification two numbers, a basic hourly rate and a fringe rate, and FAQ 10 says both are minimums. It gives no hours, no crew and no production rate. Two bidders who read the same document get the same rates, so the gap between their prices comes from hours, crew mix and how each position is mapped.
Here is an illustrative activity of 640 labor hours across three classifications, with rates per hour. All dollar figures are illustrative placeholders chosen for easy arithmetic, not market prices, wage rates or quotes. They stand in for the rates on your own determination, which will differ.
Classification | Hours | Base | Fringe | Base + fringe | Floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Laborer | 320 | $30.00 | $10.00 | $40.00 | $12,800.00 |
Operator | 120 | $30.00 | $15.00 | $45.00 | $5,400.00 |
Cement mason | 200 | $35.00 | $15.00 | $50.00 | $10,000.00 |
Total or blended | 640 | $44.06 | $28,200.00 |
Each floor is hours x combined rate: 320 x $40.00 = $12,800.00, 120 x $45.00 = $5,400.00 and 200 x $50.00 = $10,000.00. They add to $28,200.00 before payroll taxes, insurance and markup. Spread over the 640 hours, the blended rate for this example is $28,200.00 / 640 = $44.06 an hour, rounded. A flat $44.06 on every hour would overprice the laborer line by $1,299.20 and underprice the operator and cement mason lines by $112.80 and $1,188.00. The labor line changes in five places.
The floor. Both columns apply to every covered hour, and the work performed decides the classification, not the title on the payroll. A worker who does two kinds of work can be paid each rate for the time spent in it. Under 29 CFR 5.5(a)(1), payroll records must show that time. So carry hours by classification, not one crew rate.
The fringe. Fact Sheet 66 says you can meet the fringe with cash, bona fide plan contributions or a mix. Payments the law already requires, such as Social Security, unemployment compensation and workers' compensation, do not count toward it (FAQ 29). Do not read payroll burden as fringe.
The apprentices. FAQ 13 allows an apprentice rate for a worker who is individually registered in a registered program, or in the first 90 days of certified probationary employment. The site must stay within the allowed ratio. Pay is a percentage of the journeyworker rate set by the program or, when the program is registered in a different locality, by the project locality (29 CFR 5.5(a)(4)). Anyone else gets the full rate for the work performed. If the program is silent on fringe, the apprentice gets the full determination fringe, so the saving is smaller than the percentage suggests. A helper is not an apprentice: FAQ 13 allows a helper classification in a determination only under stated conditions, so do not price helpers from an apprentice percentage.
The overtime. DOL's coverage page ties overtime pay for hours over 40 in a workweek to larger prime contracts and says FLSA overtime may also apply. Plan weekly hours for each crew, not only total hours.
The compliance hours. Covered work needs weekly certified payroll with a signed Statement of Compliance. Form WH-347 is optional, but the weekly information is not. 29 CFR 5.5 requires payroll records to stay on file for at least three years after the prime contract work is complete. Give those hours their own line in general conditions or overhead.
Some bidders ask an outside estimator to map each position to a determination classification before they submit. For the build-up with burden, fringe treatment and the apprentice cap, open how to price the prevailing wage labor line. How a pre-bid number is built shows where that labor line sits in the bid price.
Federal and state wage laws on one job
Some projects carry a federal determination and a state prevailing wage schedule at once. DOL publishes its state threshold table. The table is dated January 1, 2023, gives no general rule for a project covered by both laws, and tells readers to consult the state labor office. This guide does not say which law governs. State law, the contract and the agency decide that.
Price the crosswalk
Build a crosswalk first. A state schedule may name classifications differently, so match each of your positions to a line on each schedule. Then price the job under each reading. The table reuses the hours and federal base-plus-fringe rates from the first table and adds illustrative state rates, also base plus fringe, in place of your own state schedule.
Classification | Hours | Federal rate | State rate | Federal floor | State floor | Floor at higher rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Laborer | 320 | $40.00 | $42.50 | $12,800.00 | $13,600.00 | $13,600.00 |
Operator | 120 | $45.00 | $42.50 | $5,400.00 | $5,100.00 | $5,400.00 |
Cement mason | 200 | $50.00 | $52.50 | $10,000.00 | $10,500.00 | $10,500.00 |
Total | 640 | $28,200.00 | $29,200.00 | $29,500.00 |
Each floor is hours x rate, such as 320 x $42.50 = $13,600.00 for state laborers. The last column uses the higher rate on each line, so its spread over the cheapest reading is $29,500.00 - $28,200.00 = $1,300.00, or $1,300.00 / $28,200.00 = 4.6%, rounded. The table does not say which reading is right. It shows what the answer is worth to this labor line.
Questions to send the agency
Send these before the question deadline. Each asks for the agency's answer and takes no position on the law.
Is this contract covered by the Davis-Bacon labor standards, and which funding source brings that in?
Which determination number, modification number and publication date must bidders price?
Which construction type applies to each bid item or portion of the work?
Does a state or local prevailing wage requirement also apply, and if so which schedule and effective date?
If both apply, how must the bid carry them?
Does the work need a trade with no listed classification, and will the agency request a project determination before bids or handle a conformance request after award?
Where and how are weekly certified payrolls submitted?
Placeholder RFI wording
Here is wording for the federal-and-state question. Fill in the brackets from your own documents.
RFI [number], [specification section]: The bid documents include wage determination [number], modification [number], published [date], for [county] and [construction type]. The project also receives [funding source or state program]. Please confirm three things. (a) Do [state] prevailing wage requirements also apply? (b) Which schedule or schedules must bidders price for each bid item? (c) How should bidders treat a classification that appears on only one schedule? Please answer by addendum so all bidders price the same documents.
Put the RFI date on the bid calendar like any other, as the bid desk guide explains. If the agency does not answer in time, read the instructions to bidders before you write a condition on the bid. An owner may treat a condition as a defect. One option is to carry the highest-cost reading as a labeled assumption, knowing it may cost you the low bid.
Where an outside estimator stops on covered work
An outside estimator prices what the documents say. The calls in the table stay with you, the agency or DOL.
Call | Who makes it | What an estimating desk can do |
|---|---|---|
Whether the job is covered | The contracting agency first; DOL's Wage and Hour Division rules on questions referred to it | Flag what the documents indicate and price it, with no ruling |
Which determination applies | The agency, in the solicitation | Cite the number, modification number and publication date on the assumptions sheet |
A trade missing from the determination | DOL, on a request that goes through the contracting officer | List candidates, price a labeled placeholder, show the exposure if the approved rate is higher |
Fringe as plan or cash | You, with your benefits and payroll advisers | Price both ways side by side |
Certified payroll and the Statement of Compliance | You, and the prime for subcontractor payrolls | Nothing, because it is not estimating work |
Legal advice | A construction attorney | Nothing |
Takeoff Services LLC states the same limits on its prevailing wage page. It does no certified payroll work, rules on no coverage question, files no conformance request and promises no rate. It works in all 50 states, and delivery runs 24 to 96 hours from an approved quote. Because Takeoff Services LLC sells this work, test any provider, this one included, against the table above. Ask which of the six rows it will do and which it will refuse, and have it say so in the quote.
Covered work does not always need an outside desk. If one classification does nearly all the work, the hours are modest and the county is one you bid often, read the determination yourself. The same goes when your own estimator already maintains the classification map for that schedule. Outside help earns its place when the work spans several crafts or the fringe is still undecided between plan and cash. It also helps when nobody has time to map the crews before the bid is due.
Other specialty scopes at a glance
Three other specialty scopes share one trait with Davis-Bacon work: someone else's document sets the rules. Insurance restoration follows the price list named on the file, schedules follow the schedule specification, and steel follows the engineer's design. The table states only what Takeoff Services LLC's own service pages say about each scope.
Scope | What changes in the estimate | Where the desk stops |
|---|---|---|
Insurance restoration | Scope is written line by line against the price list named on the file (a carrier or program may mandate one), each judgment item backed by a reason and a photo. Mitigation follows the drying log and the rebuild follows the sketch | Writes the estimate. Does not contact the adjuster, negotiate or act as a public adjuster, and promises no approval or supplement outcome |
Schedules | Durations come from quantity divided by crew output on the right calendar, and the contract decides who owns float | Does not testify, issue sealed opinions or opine on entitlement. Updates, look-aheads and fragnets run 24 to 96 hours from an approved quote, while a cost-loaded baseline on an agency specification is multi-week work with a date agreed in the quote |
Structural steel | Shop and erection drawings, an anchor rod setting plan and an advance bill of material for a fabricator or erector, not a bid takeoff | Does not design or seal connections and does not act as engineer of record. Measured quantities for a bid are a different product |
Table 2. Three specialty scopes and the limit of each desk.
Each scope has its own starting point.
Insurance work: how to document a supplement puts the evidence in the order a reviewer opens it.
Schedules: what an owner checks in a baseline schedule, including acceptance and float.
Steel: how shop drawings are produced, which separates detailing from takeoff.
Frequently asked questions
What are Davis-Bacon wages?
They are the minimum basic hourly wage and fringe benefit rates that DOL has found prevailing for each classification of laborer and mechanic, by area and type of construction. Contractors and subcontractors must pay at least those rates on covered federally funded or assisted construction. The wage determination in the contract lists them.
Is Davis-Bacon the same as prevailing wage?
Davis-Bacon is the federal prevailing wage law for covered construction. The phrase prevailing wage also names state laws and other federal laws, each with its own coverage and schedules. The wage determination in your contract tells you which federal schedule applies, and the agency tells you whether a state schedule also applies.
Does Davis-Bacon apply to my project?
The contracting agency decides first, and it puts the labor standards clauses and the wage determination into the prime contract. Questions about coverage go to DOL for a ruling. Federal assistance can bring a city, a school district or a housing developer's project under a Related Act. Look for the clauses and a determination in the bid documents, and ask the agency in writing if they are missing.
Where do I find the wage determination for a bid?
Look in the solicitation and the prime contract, where the agency includes it. A subcontractor can ask the prime contractor or the agency. SAM.gov publishes general determinations under public buildings or works. Check that the number, modification number and publication date match the bid documents, and ask the agency about any newer modification on SAM.gov.
Do state prevailing wage laws replace Davis-Bacon?
Do not assume so. The federal requirement follows federal funding and the contract clauses, while a state law follows its own coverage rules and thresholds, and one project can carry both. DOL's state threshold table, dated January 1, 2023, gives no general rule for the overlap. Ask the agency in writing which schedules to price.
Can apprentices be paid less on a Davis-Bacon job?
Yes, within limits. The apprentice must be individually registered in a registered program, or be in the first 90 days of certified probationary employment. The apprentices on site must stay within the allowed ratio, which is the program's or the project locality's. Pay follows the matching percentage. A worker outside these limits gets the full rate for the work performed.
