Oregon Certified Payroll Requirements

Start with the fact that saves you a rejected filing: submitting the federal Form WH-347 does not satisfy Oregon's prevailing wage rate filing requirement.The Bureau of Labor and Industries states this directly. On a project subject to Oregon's PWR law, the federal report is not a substitute for the state's — and that surprises contractors who cross the Columbia from Washington or arrive from federal work elsewhere.

Who's covered: ORS 279C and the PWR law

Oregon's prevailing wage rate (PWR) law is administered by the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) through its Prevailing Wage Rate Unit. The payroll and certified statement obligation comes from ORS 279C.845, with the operating detail in the administrative rules at OAR 839-025-0010. Current rate schedules, forms, and guidance are published at oregon.gov/boli.

The form: WH-38, and the one flexibility it allows

The form required by ORS 279C.845 is the Payroll and Certified Statement form, WH-38.

There is a real flexibility here, and it's worth understanding precisely because it is narrower than it first sounds. Contractors are not strictly required to use the WH-38 itself — a contractor or subcontractor may submit the weekly payroll on a similar form, provided that form contains all of the elements of the WH-38. But the flexibility comes with a condition: when you submit on a form other than the WH-38, you must attach the certified statement contained on page two of the WH-38 to the payroll forms you submit.

So the rule is not "any certified payroll will do." It is: equivalent data, plus Oregon's own certified statement. That combination is why a stock federal WH-347 filed on its own comes back.

What the payroll must contain

The form must accurately and completely set out your payroll records. For each worker, that means:

• name and address
• the worker's correct classification
• rate of pay
• daily and weekly hours worked
• gross wages earned each week
• deductions and net amount paid
• the hourly equivalent amount contributed to any party, plan, or program for fringe benefits
• the type of benefit provided

Two of these deserve attention. The hourly equivalent framing means Oregon wants your fringe contributions expressed as a per-hour figure, not an annual premium or a monthly plan cost — you have to do that conversion yourself, correctly, before the number goes on the form. And type of benefitmeans the state wants to know what the contribution bought: health and welfare, pension, training, or cash in lieu. A single undifferentiated fringe total doesn't answer that question.

Common Oregon mistakes

• Filing a WH-347 and considering Oregon handled. The single most consequential error on this page. It does not satisfy BOLI.
• Using an equivalent form without attaching the WH-38 certified statement. The alternative-form allowance is conditional on that attachment.
• Reporting fringe as a lump monthly cost. Oregon wants the hourly equivalent.
• Omitting the type of benefit. The state asks what the contribution was for, not just how much.
• Leaving off worker addresses. Named in the required contents.
• Multiplying fringe on overtime.Overtime is 1.5× the base rate plus straight-time fringe.

Federal overlap

When an Oregon project carries federal funds, both regimes can apply at once — and here the two-form reality is unavoidable rather than merely likely. Davis-Bacon wants its WH-347to the contracting agency; Oregon's PWR law wants its WH-38 package. Neither substitutes for the other, and workers are owed the higher of the applicable rates. Budget the administrative time for two filings on federally assisted Oregon work.

How Certiwage helps — and where it stops

Being straight about this, because Oregon is the state where our product's limits are most visible: Certiwage does not generate Oregon's Form WH-38, and a Certiwage-produced WH-347 will not satisfy a BOLI filing on its own. If your work is exclusively Oregon state PWR jobs with no federal component, Certiwage is not the whole answer for you.

What it does do is the arithmetic underneath both forms. Certiwage computes each worker's straight, overtime, and double-time hours, applies the Davis-Bacon overtime formula correctly, breaks out deductions and net pay, and runs a fringe shortfall check that compares your cash-plus-benefits package against the required rate — expressed per hour, which is the form Oregon asks for. On the federal side of a mixed-funding Oregon job, it produces the WH-347 and Statement of Compliance outright.

Certiwage is a document-preparation tool, not legal advice, and is not affiliated with BOLI or the U.S. Department of Labor. Confirm your project's filing requirements with BOLI or your contracting agency. The Pacific Northwest rules differ meaningfully across the border — see our Washington guide, and California for a third approach.

You can still run a week through the free WH-347 builder to check your fringe and overtime math before transferring it onto the WH-38.