Certified payroll for subcontractors

If you are a subcontractor on a Davis-Bacon project, the certified payroll rules apply to you exactly as they apply to the prime contractor: weekly reports, prevailing wages, a signed Statement of Compliance, three years of records. What differs is the paperwork chain and who answers for your mistakes.

How the rules reach you: flow-down

Under 29 CFR 5.5(a)(6), every contractor or subcontractor must insert the Davis-Bacon contract clauses, together with the applicable wage determination(s), into any subcontract, plus a clause requiring the subcontractor to pass them on to lower tiers. If your subcontract includes those clauses and a wage determination, you are covered, whatever tier you are.

If your subcontract mentions Davis-Bacon but no wage determination is attached, ask the prime for it before your first payroll. The determination in the prime contract is the one that governs your rates (see finding your wage determination number).

The prime contractor is responsible for you

The regulation is direct about this:

• "The prime contractor is responsible for the submission of all certified payrolls by all subcontractors" (29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(A)).
• The prime contractor is responsible for compliance by any subcontractor or lower-tier subcontractor with the contract clauses, and the prime and the responsible subcontractor(s) are liable for unpaid wages and interest owed to lower-tier workers (29 CFR 5.5(a)(6)).

That is why primes review subs' payrolls, sometimes strictly. HUD's contractor guide puts it plainly: the prime "should review each subcontractor's payroll reports for compliance prior to submitting the reports to the contract administrator," and "all of the payroll reports for any project must be submitted to the contract administrator through the prime contractor." Other agencies may use a portal where subs upload directly; your subcontract and the prime's instructions tell you which.

Where and when to submit

The regulation sends certified payrolls to the federal agency if it is a party to the contract, or otherwise to the applicant, sponsor, owner or other entity that maintains the records. In practice, a subcontractor usually submits to the prime, who forwards them.

Timing: under 29 CFR 3.4(a), each certified payroll is due within 7 days after the regular payment date of the payroll period. Primes often set an earlier internal deadline so they can review before forwarding.

An agency or prime may require an electronic system, but the regulation requires that system to accept a legally valid electronic signature, keep payrolls accessible for at least 3 years after the prime contract work ends, and allow other submission methods for contractors who cannot use it.

Filling in the WH-347 as a sub

• Check box: mark Subcontractor at the top of page 1.
• Project no. or contract no.: enter the project number or the prime contract number assigned by the contracting agency, if available.
• Business name and address: your company's legal name and full address, not the prime's.
• Certified payroll no.: start at 1 with your first week on the project and number each weekly payroll you submit. Your numbering is your own, separate from the prime's.
• Final payroll box: mark it on the payroll for your final week of work on the project.
• Wage determination no.: the number(s) and revision number(s) in the prime contract that apply to your work.

The full walkthrough is in how to fill out WH-347.

Social Security numbers and personal data

Weekly certified payrolls must not include full Social Security numbers or workers' last known addresses, phone numbers or email addresses; use an individual identifying number such as the last four digits of the SSN.

But the regulation also says: "It is not a violation of this section for a prime contractor to require a subcontractor to provide full Social Security numbers and last known addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses to the prime contractor for its own records, without weekly submission by the subcontractor to the sponsoring government agency." So a prime may ask for that data separately. You must keep it in your own records in any case, and provide it to the agency or DOL on request.

Weeks you are not on site

Subcontractors often work in bursts: two weeks on, a month off. The federal rule requires a certified payroll for each week in which covered work is performed, but some agencies and primes ask for "no work" reports for the weeks in between. Ask your prime what they want before your first gap. See no work performed weeks.

Lower-tier subcontractors

If you hire your own subcontractor on the project, you must flow the clauses and wage determination down to them, and their payrolls come up the chain through you to the prime. Treat their reports the way your prime treats yours: check classifications and rates before you forward them.

Records to keep

Keep these for at least 3 years after all the work on the prime contract is completed, not after your part ended:

• Regular payroll records, including full SSNs and contact details.
• Copies of every certified payroll you submitted.
• Your subcontract and related documents (bids, proposals, amendments, modifications, extensions).

You must make them available to the agency or DOL on request and let their representatives interview workers on the job during working hours.

A simple weekly routine for a small sub

1. Close out time by day and classification for each worker.
2. Check rates against the wage determination in the prime contract.
3. Build the WH-347, sign page 2, and send it to the prime by their deadline.
4. Keep a copy, and log the payroll number you used.
5. If you will be off the job next week, ask the prime whether they want a "no work" report.

WH-347 Kit keeps a project per job with the prime contractor's name, so each week starts from your saved crew and rates, and the payroll number counts up for you. The report is yours to check and sign.