Finding your wage determination number

The Rev. January 2025 WH-347 added a header field that the old form did not have: Wage determination no. Filling it in correctly means knowing which wage determination governs your contract, and which revision of it.

What DOL asks for

From the WH-347 instructions: "Enter the wage determination number(s) and revision number(s) included in the covered contract and relevant to the submitted certified payroll form (e.g., if there are multiple wage determinations applicable to the project, please list all wage determinations that applied to the work performed by the workers in this pay period)."

Three points in that sentence:

1. Included in the covered contract. The source is your contract, not a search result.
2. Number and revision. Wage determinations are revised over time; the revision (modification) number tells the reviewer exactly which rates you used.
3. All that applied this week. A project can carry more than one wage determination. List each one that covered work done that week.

Where to find it

1. Your contract or subcontract

The wage determination is attached to (or incorporated in) the prime contract and the bid documents, and the contract clauses in 29 CFR 5.5 require it to be inserted into every subcontract along with the Davis-Bacon clauses. Look for the wage determination attachment, often listed with the contract's exhibits or near the labor standards clauses.

You will see an identifier and a modification number with a publication date. A real example: a 2024 modification to a Department of Energy contract in Nevada (DE-NA0003624, Modification No. 0231) incorporates five construction wage determinations, the first listed as "NV20240001 Mod. No. 6 (11/08/2024)." On the WH-347 you would write it as it appears in your contract, for example "NV20240001 Mod 6."

If you are a subcontractor and the wage determination is not in your subcontract, ask the prime for the exact pages from the prime contract.

2. The wage determination posted on site

The contract clause requires the wage determination (including any conformed classifications) and the Davis-Bacon poster (WH-1321) to be posted at the site of the work where workers can easily see them. The posted copy should match the one in the contract.

3. SAM.gov

Wage determinations are published on SAM.gov's wage determinations page, which the WH-347 instructions link to. SAM.gov is useful to read the full text of a determination whose number you already have, or to see what has been published for an area. It is not the right place to decide which determination applies to your contract.

Why the contract version wins

Under 29 CFR 1.6(a): "Once a wage determination is incorporated into a contract (or once construction has started when there is no contract award), the wage determination generally applies for the duration of the contract or project, except as specified in this section." The regulation then describes the situations where a revised determination must be incorporated, for example in some long-term or option-extended contracts. That decision is made by the contracting agency, which is also responsible for identifying and incorporating the right wage determination(s) in the first place.

So if SAM.gov shows "Mod 9" but your contract incorporates "Mod 6," use Mod 6 unless the contracting officer has incorporated the newer revision. When that happens, it comes as a contract modification: the Nevada contract above shows exactly that, deleting five 2023 wage determinations and incorporating their 2024 revisions effective October 1, 2024. Revised, superseded or canceled determinations become inactive on the website but remain viewable for information.

Types of construction

General wage determinations are published by type of construction. In DOL's definition (29 CFR 1.2), types "may include, but are not limited to, building, residential, heavy, and highway." A contract can incorporate more than one determination (the Nevada contract above incorporates five), and DOL's instructions expect you to list every one that applied to the work on that week's payroll.

Choosing the correct type is the agency's job when it writes the contract. Your job on the payroll is to use the determination(s) actually in the contract for the work your crew performed.

Classifications: matching column 3

Column 3 of the WH-347 must use classifications from the wage determination, for the work actually performed. Before your first payroll, read the determination and list the classifications your crew will use, with their basic and fringe rates. Read any footnotes in the determination too; they can change what is owed.

If a classification is missing

The WH-347 instructions say: "If the wage determination(s) does not include a labor classification for work that a worker has performed on this contract, contact the Contracting Officer or Agency representative immediately."

The fix is a conformance under 29 CFR 5.5(a)(1)(iii). The contracting officer must have the missing classification added in conformance with the wage determination. It is allowed only if the work is not done by a classification already listed, the classification is used in the area by the construction industry, and the proposed rate (with fringe) bears a reasonable relationship to the rates in the determination. Once approved or set by DOL, the conformed rate is owed from the first day the work was performed in that classification. More in multiple classifications.

Quick checklist

• Wage determination number(s) and modification number(s) copied from the contract.
• Every determination that covered work this week listed in the header.
• Classifications in column 3 spelled as in the determination.
• Basic and fringe rates checked against the same modification.
• A conformance requested for any work with no matching classification.

In WH-347 Kit you store the wage determination number with each project; the app links to SAM.gov's wage determination search so you can pull up the full text when you need it.