What is a certified payroll report?

A certified payroll report is the weekly wage report contractors must file on government-funded construction projects to prove every worker was paid the legally required prevailing wage. On federal projects it is form WH-347, filed under the Davis-Bacon Act; many states require their own version on top.

Who has to file one

Every contractor and subcontractor on a federally funded or assisted construction contract covered by Davis-Bacon — generally contracts over $2,000 — files weekly, for each week workers are on the project. Many states (California, New York, Washington, and others) impose parallel requirements on state-funded public works, sometimes through their own portals and formats.

What goes in it

For each worker on the project that week: name and an identifying number, work classification (the trade, e.g. “Electrician — Journeyman”), hours worked each day with overtime broken out, the hourly rate of pay, gross earnings, deductions, net pay, and fringe benefit information. The second page is a signed Statement of Compliance — an officer certifies under penalty of law that the wages shown are true and meet the applicable wage determination.

When it is due

Weekly. On federal work the certified payroll must be delivered within seven days after the regular pay date for the payroll week. The obligation continues for every week of work on the project — and under several state regimes you must file even for weeks with no work performed.

Why it is painful

The data already exists in your payroll system — but WH-347 wants it re-arranged: hours per day (payroll registers usually show weekly totals), pay split by project and classification, and fringe benefits expressed against the wage determination. Most offices re-type it into a template every Friday.

Three ways to produce one