Certified Payroll in New York

If you're a subcontractor on a New York public works job, you have to pay the prevailing wage and prove it every week with a certified payroll report. It sounds intimidating the first time, but the requirement is really just three things done consistently: pay the right rate, keep accurate records, and file a signed report on schedule. This guide walks through how that works in New York, where the rules differ from the federal Davis-Bacon system, and where they line up.

Who sets prevailing wage in New York

New York's prevailing wage requirements come from the New York State Labor Law, not the federal Davis-Bacon Act. Two articles matter:

• Article 8 (Labor Law §220) covers construction, reconstruction, and maintenance work on public works projects — the category most subcontractors are filing for.
• Article 9 (Labor Law §230) covers building service work (janitorial, security, groundskeeping, and similar) under public building-service contracts.

For most of the state, the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) Bureau of Public Work sets the prevailing wage schedules and enforces them. Inside the five boroughs, the New York City Comptroller's Office issues the prevailing wage schedules and enforces prevailing wage for New York City public works. Which agency governs your job depends on the awarding body, so always confirm with the agency that awarded the contract before you file.

New York prevailing wage schedules

New York publishes prevailing wage schedules by county and by trade. A schedule lists, for each classification (electrician, laborer, carpenter, operating engineer, and so on), two numbers you have to pay:

Add the two together and you have the total hourly package you owe. The rates are county-specific, so a laborer in Erie County and a laborer in Manhattan can be on very different numbers. Schedules also update — often annually — so you must pull the schedule tied to your specific contract and effective date, not a rate you remember from a past job.

What "certified payroll" means in New York

Under Labor Law §220, contractors and subcontractors on public works must keep original payroll records and, when the awarding body or NYSDOL requests them, furnish a certified transcript of the original payroll records. That transcript is your certified payroll report: a record of every worker on the project, their classification, hours, rate, supplements, gross pay, deductions, and net pay, signed under penalty of law affirming it is true and complete.

Practical points that trip up first-time filers:

• File weekly, per project. You produce one report for each week you have workers on that job. A separate job means a separate set of reports.
• Many awarding bodies accept a WH-347-style form. New York does not force one universal document on every project. A large number of public entities accept a certified payroll form modeled on the federal Form WH-347, which carries all the required columns plus a signed Statement of Compliance. Some agencies have their own form or portal — so confirm the exact form your awarding body wants.
• Only record the last four digits of each SSN. Modern certified payroll practice — and the current WH-347 — uses an individual identifying number, so you store only the last 4 of the Social Security number, never the full number, on the report.
• The signature is a legal attestation. Certifying a payroll you know to be false can carry civil and criminal exposure, so the accuracy of what you sign matters.

Supplements: New York's word for fringe — and the #1 audit issue

The single most common reason a certified payroll fails review is fringe — "supplements" in New York terms. The test is on the total package. You satisfy the supplement rate by paying into bona-fide benefit plans, by paying cash in lieu of benefits, or by a combination — but the base cash plus everything you provide for benefits has to at least equal the base plus supplements on the schedule. If it falls short by even a small amount per hour, that shortfall multiplied across every hour worked becomes back wages the agency can order you to pay.

Worked example. Say a schedule lists a carpenter at a $40.00 base rate and $30.00 in supplements, for a $70.00 total package. If you pay $40.00 cash and contribute $28.00 an hour to approved plans, your package is $68.00 — a $2.00 shortfall. Over a 40-hour week that's $80.00 in back wages for that one worker, for that one week. The math is unforgiving, which is exactly why checking it before you file beats getting a letter afterward.

Overtime: get the formula right

Overtime rules on pure New York state jobs follow the specific provisions printed on the applicable wage schedule — some trades pay a premium after 7 or 8 hours a day, or on Saturdays and Sundays, so always read the schedule. On a project that also receives federal funds, the Davis-Bacon and Contract Work Hours standards apply, and this is where a lot of subcontractors overpay or underpay by using the wrong formula.

Under the federal rule, overtime is 1.5× the base hourly rate plus the fringe (supplement) at straight time — the fringe is not multiplied by 1.5. Using the carpenter above with a $40.00 base and $30.00 supplement:

That's a $15.00-an-hour difference on every overtime hour, from a single misplaced multiplier. Straight-time hours are simply the base plus the supplement — $70.00 an hour here.

Submitting to New York City

For New York City public works, the Comptroller's Office administers prevailing wage, and many city contracts require certified payroll to be submitted electronicallythrough the Comptroller's designated submission system rather than on paper. If your job is a City agency contract, ask the awarding agency whether electronic certified payroll is required and how to get access before your first payroll is due — you don't want to discover the requirement the week a report is late. State-administered jobs elsewhere may accept a signed form directly or through NYSDOL's process; again, the awarding body is the source of truth.

How Certiwage helps

Certiwage takes your crew's hours and the base and supplement rates off your New York wage schedule and produces a clean, weekly certified payroll report with its Statement of Compliance. It computes gross, overtime, and net for you, and it checks your supplement package against the required rate so a shortfall gets caught before you sign, not after an auditor does. It applies the correct Davis-Bacon overtime formula automatically and stores only the last four digits of each SSN. Certiwage is a document-preparation tool — it is not legal advice and is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Labor, NYSDOL, or the New York City Comptroller, so confirm the specific form and submission method your awarding body requires. You can see plans on our pricing page, or compare how another state handles it in our California DIR eCPR guide.

The fastest way to see whether your numbers hold up is to run one week through the free WH-347 builder — no signup, and the fringe and overtime math is checked for you.