Sample Certified Payroll Report: Form WH-347 Column by Column

The certified payroll report on Form WH-347 is the weekly wage statement contractors and subcontractors file on federal or federally funded construction contracts over $2,000. It lists every laborer and mechanic who worked that week, their classification, hours, pay rate, deductions, and net wages, and it carries a signed Statement of Compliance certifying the workers were paid at least the prevailing wage. Complete the grid on page 1, sign the certification on page 2, and submit weekly through whatever channel your contract specifies.¹

When You Have To File One

The Davis-Bacon Act triggers the reporting requirement on any federal or federally assisted construction contract exceeding $2,000.² The Copeland Act then requires a weekly statement of wages for every covered worker.³ That weekly statement is the certified payroll.

Coverage tracks the “site of the work,” defined to include the primary construction site, any secondary site dedicated almost exclusively to the project where a significant portion of the work is built, and adjacent support facilities like batch plants, tool yards, or borrow pits that serve the project exclusively or nearly so.⁴ Permanent offices, fabrication plants serving multiple projects, and independent material suppliers are not covered even if some of their output reaches your job.

The WH-347 form itself is technically optional. Any format that carries the identical information satisfies the regulation. Most agencies expect the WH-347 specifically, though, and using it heads off arguments about whether your substitute is adequate.

Records to Gather Before You Start

The form assumes you already have a clean set of weekly records for each covered worker. Federal regulations spell out what those records must contain:⁵

Full name, Social Security number, last known address, phone, and email. Only the last four digits of the SSN go on the form; keep the full number in your own files.⁶
The correct classification for the work actually performed, matched to the wage determination on your contract.
Daily and weekly hours, separated between the covered project and any other work.
Straight-time and overtime hourly rates, including fringe benefit contributions or cash equivalents.
Every deduction taken from gross wages.
Net wages paid.

Overtime kicks in at more than 40 hours in a workweek on a covered contract, at one and one-half times the basic rate. Track covered-project overtime separately so the hours on the form match the hours worked at the covered site.

You must keep the payroll and supporting records for at least three years after all work on the prime contract is completed, not after your subcontract wraps.

Filling In Page 1 Column by Column

The fillable PDF is on the Department of Labor’s site.⁶ The header asks for your company name and address, the payroll number (sequential, starting at 1), the week-ending date, and the project name, number, and location. Below the header, the grid holds eight workers per page. Each row is one worker.

Column 1, Name and ID: worker’s name plus an individual identifier. Use the last four digits of the SSN or another number unique to the worker. Never put a full SSN on the form.
Column 2, Withholding Exemptions: the number the worker claimed.
Column 3, Work Classification: pulled directly from the wage determination and reflecting the work actually performed, not a default job title.
Column 4, Hours Worked Each Day: two sub-rows per worker, straight-time on top, overtime beneath, showing only hours on this covered project.
Column 5, Total: straight-time plus overtime for the week.
Column 6, Rate of Pay: the actual hourly rate paid. If you paid above prevailing, enter what the worker actually received.
Column 7, Gross Amount Earned: gross for this project, then gross for all work that week if the worker also worked on other jobs for you.
Column 8, Deductions: FICA, withholding tax, and other. If “Other” holds more than one item, attach an addendum itemizing each.
Column 9, Net Wages Paid: take-home after deductions, with the check number.

With more than eight workers, continue on additional pages using sequential entry numbers: row 1 on page 2 is entry 9, row 1 on page 3 is entry 17, and so on.

Reporting Fringe Benefits

Prevailing wage rates on a Davis-Bacon wage determination have two parts: a basic hourly rate and a fringe benefit rate.⁷ You can meet the fringe obligation by contributing to a bona fide plan, paying the equivalent as cash to the worker, or combining both.

The Statement of Compliance on page 2 has a section for documenting fringe credits. If you contribute to a bona fide plan, check the designated box and fill out the subsection with the type of benefit and hourly amount contributed. If you pay cash in lieu, report those amounts in Column 6C on page 1. A combined approach means entries in both places. Basic rate plus fringe (plan, cash, or both) has to meet or exceed the full prevailing wage rate on the wage determination.

If you run a fringe benefit plan, keep documentation showing it is enforceable, financially responsible, and communicated in writing to the affected workers. Auditors will ask for it alongside the certified payrolls.

Workers Who Switch Classifications Midweek

When a worker performs tasks in more than one classification during a week, you cannot lump the hours together. Use a separate row for each classification, with the same worker entry number on both rows so a reviewer can tie them to one person. Each row carries the wage rate for that classification.

The catch: if you did not track how many hours the worker spent in each classification, you owe the highest applicable prevailing wage rate for every hour that week. Daily time records are the only way to avoid either overpaying or, worse, underpaying and triggering a back-wage investigation.

Apprentices on the Payroll

Apprentices are the main exception to full journey-level prevailing wages. To pay a reduced rate, the apprentice must be individually registered in a program approved by the DOL Office of Apprenticeship or a recognized State Apprenticeship Agency.⁸ The rate is the percentage of the journey-level rate corresponding to the apprentice’s progression.

Three rules cause most problems:

Ratio limits. You can employ apprentices only up to the ratio in the registered program, measured daily. Any apprentice beyond the ratio gets the full journey-level wage that day.
Fringe benefits. Apprentices receive fringe according to the program’s terms. If the program is silent, they get the full fringe amount from the wage determination.
Documentation. Keep written proof of program registration, each apprentice’s individual registration, and the applicable ratios and rates.

An unregistered worker doing apprentice-level tasks must be classified and paid as a journey-level worker. Calling someone an apprentice without registration will not survive an audit.

Signing the Statement of Compliance

Page 2 is what turns a payroll into a certified payroll. The signer certifies three things:

The payroll contains the required information and the underlying records are correct and complete.
Every worker received full weekly wages without unauthorized rebates or deductions. The only permitted deductions are those allowed under 29 CFR Part 3, such as taxes, worker-authorized benefits, and deductions required by law.⁹
Every worker was paid at least the applicable rate and fringe benefits from the wage determination in the contract.

An original handwritten signature or a legally valid electronic signature is acceptable. The signer must be the contractor, subcontractor, or their agent who pays or supervises payment of workers on the contract. Falsifying the certification exposes the signer to federal false-statement and false-claims prosecution, with penalties that include up to five years in prison.¹⁰ Investigators compare certified payrolls against worker interviews and bank records, and the signature puts a name on the statement.

Where and When to Submit

Certified payrolls go in weekly for each week covered work is performed. If the contracting agency is a direct party to the contract, submit to that agency. If not, submit to whoever maintains project records (usually the prime contractor or grant recipient), who forwards the set to the agency.

Prime contractors are responsible for collecting and reviewing every subcontractor’s certified payroll before transmitting the full set to the government. A prime can be held accountable for a subcontractor’s failure to report.

Many agencies now require electronic submission. The Department of Energy, for instance, requires contractors on Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act projects to file through LCPtracker, which automatically flags math errors and wage-rate discrepancies.¹¹ Other agencies use different platforms or still accept paper. Check your contract for the required method.

During weeks with no covered work, you do not need to file, but either continue numbering reports sequentially through the gap or send written notice that work is suspended so a numbering break does not prompt an inquiry.¹²

When the Wage Determination Is Missing a Classification

If the wage determination on your contract does not include a classification the job requires, request an additional one through “conformance.” The request goes through the contracting officer to the Wage and Hour Division at DBAconformance@dol.gov. To qualify, the work must not fit any existing classification on the determination, the requested classification must be used in the area by the construction industry, and the proposed rate must bear a reasonable relationship to rates already on the determination. WHD has 30 days to approve, modify, or deny. An approved rate applies retroactively to the first day work was performed in that classification.

The official form is SF-1444, Request for Authorization of Additional Classification and Rate.¹³ Conformance cannot be used to split or subdivide an existing classification to create a lower-paid category for work already covered.

To check your contract’s wage determination against the current version, search on SAM.gov, the official federal repository.¹⁴ Do that before filling out your first payroll.

What Happens If You Get It Wrong

The contracting agency can withhold accrued payments on the contract until violations are corrected. After written notice, the agency can suspend further payment, advance, or guarantee of funds until you submit the required records or stop underpaying workers. A payment freeze can extend to other federal contracts held by the same prime, even those awarded by different agencies.

A contractor or subcontractor found to have disregarded its obligations to workers faces debarment from all federal and federally assisted contracts for three years. Debarment reaches responsible officers and any firm in which they hold an interest, with the names published on SAM.gov.¹⁵ Three years without federal work is enough to close a contracting business built on government projects.

Falsifying a certified payroll is a federal crime. When a signed Statement of Compliance says wages were paid correctly and they were not, the paper trail makes prosecution straightforward. That is why the form is worth completing carefully every week, from Column 1 through the signature line.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Davis-Bacon and Related Acts
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 40 USC 3141-3142 – Wage Rate Requirements
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 40 USC 3145 – Regulations Governing Contractors and Subcontractors
4
eCFR. 29 CFR 5.2 – Definitions
5
eCFR. 29 CFR 5.5 – Contract Provisions and Related Matters
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Instructions for Completing Payroll Form WH-347
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 40 USC 3141 – Definitions
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Davis-Bacon Compliance Principles
9
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 3 – Contractors and Subcontractors on Public Building or Public Work
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1020 – Highway Projects False Statements
11
U.S. Department of Energy. Weekly DBA Payroll Tracking With LCPtracker
12
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Handbook 1344.1 REV-3
13
General Services Administration. Request for Authorization of Additional Classification and Rate
14
SAM.gov. Wage Determinations
15
eCFR. 29 CFR 5.12 – Debarment Proceedings