California certified payroll: DIR filing and hours by project

Who files certified payroll in California, and where

Certified payroll is the payroll record for a public works job, signed as true. In California, public works means construction, alteration, demolition, installation or repair done under contract and paid for in whole or in part with public money. Maintenance contracts count too. On any public works project over $1,000, workers must get at least the prevailing wage for their type of work and the project’s location. DIR’s director sets those rates, usually based on union agreements, and publishes them on DIR’s prevailing wage rates page.

Every contractor and subcontractor on the job sends its own records straight to the Labor Commissioner, electronically, through DIR’s website. DIR calls it electronic certified payroll reporting, or eCPR. You can type each payroll into its online form or upload an XML file built to DIR’s published format. Sending payroll to the prime contractor, the awarding body or a union doesn’t replace the DIR filing.

Two registrations come first. The awarding body registers the project with DIR, which gives it a project ID, often called the PWC-100 number. If you can’t find your project in DIR’s search, ask the awarding body to register it. Your company also has to be registered with DIR as a public works contractor to bid on or work on the job. Registration is renewed by July 1, and you can pay for up to three years at once. Registration asks for proof of workers’ comp coverage, so keeping workers’ comp certificates and expiry dates in order helps.

References: California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1720 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1771 (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Prevailing Wage Requirements (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1771.4 (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Certified Payroll Reporting (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Frequently Asked Questions on Certified Payroll Reporting (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1725.5 (opens in a new tab)

Which jobs skip the DIR filing, and what you keep anyway

Small projects don’t need DIR registration: $25,000 or less for construction, alteration, demolition, installation or repair, and $15,000 or less for maintenance. An unregistered contractor on one of those doesn’t file with DIR. It still keeps the same payroll records for at least three years after the work is done.

DIR’s exemptions page, last updated in July 2016, also lists projects that are exempt from online filing. One group is projects monitored by four older labor compliance programs: Caltrans, the City of Los Angeles, LAUSD and the County of Sacramento. The other is projects under a qualifying project labor agreement. The awarding body or the contract should tell you if yours is one.

Skipping the filing doesn’t mean skipping the prevailing wage. For example, an $18,000 repair job for a school district is under the registration threshold but well over $1,000. The crew still gets prevailing wage, and the payroll records still have to exist if anyone asks.

Local terms can add to this. A contract can require filing more often than the law does, and some charter cities have their own prevailing wage ordinance for city jobs. If the job also has federal money, federal Davis-Bacon rules add weekly certified payrolls. They go to the federal agency or the entity that keeps records for it. The federal form WH-347 is optional, but the weekly payroll information isn’t. This isn’t legal advice. Confirm the rules for each job with the awarding body, DIR or a lawyer.

References: California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1725.5 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1771.4 (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Frequently Asked Questions on Certified Payroll Reporting (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Certified payroll reporting exemptions (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1771 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1782 (opens in a new tab) · U.S. Department of Labor: Instructions for the Davis-Bacon weekly certified payroll form, WH-347 (opens in a new tab)

What each certified payroll record has to show

The Labor Code lists the core. For each journeyman, apprentice or other worker on the job, the record shows their name, address, Social Security number and work classification. It also shows straight time and overtime hours worked each day and week, and the wages actually paid.

Each record is signed under penalty of perjury. The statement says the information is true, and that you met the prevailing wage, eight-hour-day and overtime rules for your workers on the project. Wages here include what you pay into benefits for workers, like health and welfare, pension, vacation, travel, subsistence and training.

DIR’s sample upload file shows the fields in each weekly record:

• The week-ending date, the DIR project ID, and your company’s license and DIR registration numbers.
• For each worker: name, address, Social Security number and classification.
• Hours for each day of the week, split into straight time, overtime and double time, with weekly totals.
• The hourly rate for straight time, overtime and double time.
• Gross pay earned on this project, and gross pay for all work that week.
• Deductions, like federal and state tax, FICA, SDI and dues, and contributions, like health and welfare, pension, vacation and holiday, training, and travel and subsistence.
• Net wages paid for the week and the check number.

References: California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1776 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1773.1 (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: eCPR sample XML file (opens in a new tab)

Why hours have to be split by project, classification and day

Most of that record comes from payroll. The part payroll can’t invent is the hours: which days, on which project, doing which kind of work. Regular payroll usually totals each person’s hours for the pay period. Certified payroll needs them per project, per day and per classification. The Labor Code also requires a record of each worker’s actual hours on public work, each day and week. The awarding body and the Labor Commissioner can inspect it.

For example, a 5-person electrical contractor has an electrician on a school lighting job Monday to Wednesday and on private service calls Thursday and Friday. The school’s record shows three days and the pay earned there, next to the week’s pay for all work. If the timesheet only says “40 hours,” someone rebuilds the split from memory before filing, and signs it under penalty of perjury.

Classification matters because the prevailing wage depends on the type of work. A worker who spends the morning as a laborer and the afternoon running equipment may be owed two different rates. Keep those hours apart in your records, and ask whoever files how to show them.

Overtime is counted by the day as well. On public work, a day is limited to eight hours and a week to 40. Longer hours are allowed if every hour over eight in a day is paid at least time and a half. Overtime and holiday work have their own prevailing rates too. If a worker splits a long day between a public job and a private one, keep the start and end times for each. Your payroll provider then has what it needs to work out overtime.

Apprentices add one more count. Public works contracts of $30,000 or more carry a duty to employ apprentices in apprenticeable crafts. DIR says that duty covers every contractor and subcontractor on the project, even if their part is under $30,000. Before work starts, send contract award information for each craft (DIR’s DAS 140 form) to the apprenticeship committees that can supply the site. Request apprentices on the DAS 142 form at least three business days before you need them. The ratio is at least one hour of apprentice work for every five hours of journeyman work. It’s counted day by day, leaving out journeyman hours over eight a day or 40 a week. You also pay the training fund contributions set in the prevailing wage rate. DIR’s apprenticeship division can grant exemptions. Within 60 days after finishing, each contractor sends the apprenticeship program a verified statement of journeyman and apprentice hours on the contract. That’s the same hours record, added up by craft.

References: California DIR: eCPR sample XML file (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Prevailing Wage Requirements (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1812 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1811 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1815 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1771 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1777.5 (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Apprenticeship Requirements (opens in a new tab)

Deadlines, corrections and weeks with no work

The law says “monthly” means at least once every 30 days while work is going on, and within 30 days after the final day of work. A contract can ask for more. DIR’s FAQ, last updated in July 2016, words the deadline differently and calls weekly filing, or filing each payroll period, the best practice. We’d plan around the current law and file each payroll period.

Late filing can cost $100 a day, up to $5,000 per project. The Labor Commissioner can’t charge it until records are 14 days past the deadline, and only the company that didn’t file pays it.

If the awarding body runs a labor compliance program, the Labor Code requires it to withhold contract payments while payroll records are late or inadequate. DIR’s regulation, title 8, section 16435, defines both. Late means not in by the date the contract sets. Inadequate includes a record missing required details or not certified by the company. The prime then has to stop paying a sub whose records are the problem. Once the records are in, payments can’t be held back for that reason alone.

Once a record is signed in DIR’s system, it can’t be changed or deleted. To fix a mistake, you file an amended record for the same payroll period, for just the workers who change. A week with no work on the project can be filed as a statement of non-performance. That statement also replaces a payroll filed by mistake for a week with no work. Save the full PDF from the confirmation page. DIR’s FAQ says that full version is gone once you close the page; the public search only shows a redacted copy.

Requests for copies have their own clock. When the awarding body or the Labor Commissioner’s office asks in writing for certified copies, you have 10 days. Miss it, and the penalty is $100 per calendar day for each worker, which can be held back from progress payments. Since January 1, 2026, if the public asks an awarding body that doesn’t have your records, the awarding body must get them from you. Copies given to the public have workers’ names, addresses and Social Security numbers blacked out.

Tell the awarding body where your payroll records are kept, by street address, city and county. If that changes, you have five working days to send the new location. California also requires payroll records showing hours worked each day to be kept for at least three years.

References: California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1771.4 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1771.5 (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Title 8, section 16435 (DIR’s copy of the regulation) (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Frequently Asked Questions on Certified Payroll Reporting (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: eCPR XML Guidelines (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1776 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: AB 538 (2025), Public works: payroll records (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1174 (opens in a new tab)

How it looks in a few trades

The rules are the same for every trade, but the hard spot moves. These are made-up examples, not real clients:

• Landscaping. A 4-crew landscaper wins a park maintenance contract from a city. Maintenance has its own $15,000 threshold. Crews rotate between the park and private clients, so hours have to land on the right site each day.
• Painting. An owner paints alongside three employees on a library repaint. DIR’s FAQ says an owner who does the work reports it too. That means name, address, SSN (or federal tax ID if there’s no SSN), classification, hourly rate, hours, and an estimate of the pay for that work. So the owner logs hours like everyone else.
• Plumbing. A plumbing subcontractor brings two apprentices to a fire station job. The contract award information goes out before work starts. Journeyman and apprentice hours are counted by craft each day. The ratio has to be met before the subcontract ends, and the hours statement goes out within 60 days.
• General contracting. Each subcontractor files its own certified payroll, and you can look up their filings in DIR’s public search. You aren’t charged the 10-day copy penalty when a sub fails to hand over its records. But the contract makes you responsible for apprenticeship rules in every trade, so track your subs’ apprentice hours too. You still want every sub’s DIR registration and license details on file before they start, which our piece on subcontractor license details covers.

References: California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1725.5 (opens in a new tab) · California DIR: Frequently Asked Questions on Certified Payroll Reporting (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1777.5 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1776 (opens in a new tab)

A weekly routine for certified payroll hours

Certified payroll gets easy when the hours are right before anyone opens DIR’s form. Every step below uses the same hours by worker, project and classification, captured once and used several times.

Here is a routine that works with paper, an app or your own system:

• Set up each public job once: DIR project ID, awarding body, county and the classifications on the job. Add DIR’s prevailing wage rate for each one, how often the contract wants filings, whether apprentices apply, and the date you sent the DAS 140.
• Crews log start and end times against the project and classification every day, not from memory on Friday. Breaks belong in the same log, as our piece on meal-break records for crews explains.
• Someone in the office checks the week: every hour has a project and a classification, daily overtime is counted, and totals match what payroll will pay.
• Export each project’s week in the layout whoever files needs, whether that’s your payroll service, your bookkeeper or you on DIR’s form.
• File, save the confirmation PDF, and note the date. Watch each project’s 30-day clock, and agree with the awarding body how to report weeks with no work.
• Fix mistakes with an amended record, never by editing old numbers out of sight.
• At the end, make the final filing within 30 days of the last day. Send the apprenticeship hours statement within 60 days, and keep everything at least three years.
• Keep Social Security numbers only where payroll needs them, and limit who can see them.

References: California DIR: Frequently Asked Questions on Certified Payroll Reporting (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1771.4 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1777.5 (opens in a new tab) · California Legislative Information: Labor Code section 1174 (opens in a new tab)

Spreadsheet, payroll service or hours in your job system

If you do one or two small public jobs a year, a daily paper or spreadsheet log per project may be enough. Hand it to a payroll service that files with DIR. Don’t build software for a twice-a-year task.

Hours belong in your job system when crews split days between public and private jobs, or workers do more than one kind of work. The same goes when someone retypes timesheets into a certified payroll form every week. Then the hours your crew logs on a job become the certified payroll hours, with nothing copied. Our guide to time clock apps vs time tracking in job software covers that choice in more detail.

If you’re choosing a payroll app or service for public works, ask each one:

• Do you file in DIR’s system for us, online or by XML upload, or do we file?
• Can one worker’s hours be split by project and by classification in the same week?
• How do you handle amended records and weeks with no work?
• Where do benefit contributions and apprentice hours come from?
• What do you need from us each week, in what format, and by what day?

How we build the hours record behind certified payroll

We don’t run payroll or file certified payroll. We build the system that keeps the hours right before anyone files. Crews log time on their phones against the project and classification. The office reviews each week on one screen, and each project’s hours export in the layout your payroll service or bookkeeper needs. If you upload to DIR yourself, we check DIR’s published file format against your setup before we quote. Your payroll provider can keep the Social Security numbers.

A focused fix, like one weekly hours report per project, is typically $750–$3,000 over 1–⁠2 weeks. One business system, like scheduling plus crew hours by project and classification, is $6,000–$18,000 over 6–⁠10 weeks. These are our prices as of 2026-10-04, and what custom software costs explains what moves them. Every launch includes 30 days of fixes. We connect to QuickBooks Online, and we check any payroll app before quoting. If a payroll service already handles all of this for you, we’ll say so.

This isn’t legal advice, so confirm each job’s rules with the awarding body, DIR or a lawyer. The first call with us is free, and you get a fixed price in writing within 48 hours of it. Bring a page of notes:

• How many public jobs you do in a year, and how many people work on them.
• The classifications your crews work in, and whether you use apprentices.
• Who files certified payroll today, and how they get the hours.
• Every app you use for scheduling, time and payroll, with its monthly cost.