Prevailing wage payroll, without the mystery

On a public works job you do not pick the wage — the wage determination does. Here is how that changes the payroll you run every week, and why the certified payroll report exists to prove you did it right.

The wage determination sets two numbers

For each work classification, the applicable determination lists a base hourly rate and a fringe benefit rate. You must deliver both: fringes as contributions to bona fide plans (health, pension, training), as cash added to the hourly rate, or a mix. Where payrolls go wrong: paying the base rate correctly but shorting the fringe, or paying cash-in-lieu without showing it as a rate addition.

Overtime has a trap in it

Overtime is at least 1.5× the base rate — fringe benefits generally do not get multiplied. Payroll systems that lump base and fringe into one rate quietly overpay OT, or worse, underpay it when configured backwards. Federal work uses over-40/week; several states (California among them) also require daily overtime after 8 hours.

One worker, several rows

A worker who operates equipment in the morning and finishes concrete in the afternoon is two classifications with two rates — split by hours, on the same weekly report. Same for a worker split across a public and a private job: the certified payroll shows project hours and project gross against total gross.

Where it all lands: the weekly certified payroll

Every one of these rules surfaces on the certified payroll report — daily hours, classification, rate, fringe, gross — signed under penalty of perjury. Our free WH-347 generator handles the overtime split; the upload beta reads the payroll report you already ran and checks the arithmetic before you sign.