New Mexico Public Works Prevailing Wage Guide

Which Projects Are Covered

Two kinds of solar, wind, and storage projects fall under section 13-4-11 of the Public Works Minimum Wage Act, as amended by House Bill 6 (Laws 2025, chapter 132):

• Public works. Subsection A covers every contract or project over $60,000 that the state or a political subdivision is a party to for construction, alteration, demolition, or repair of public buildings, public works, or public roads. It applies when the work employs mechanics or laborers. A solar array or battery built for a school district, a county, a city, or a state agency is the usual case.
• Industrial revenue bond projects. Subsection J, added in 2025, applies to projects undertaken "under the auspices of a municipality or county through the issuance of an industrial revenue bond". On those projects, the contractor, subcontractor, employer, or person acting as a contractor must pay the prevailing wage and comply with the section. The project owner is private, but the Act applies.

House Bill 6 was signed on April 9, 2025 and has no effective date clause. The Legislature's fiscal impact report gives June 20, 2025 as the effective date and reads the $60,000 threshold as applying to bond projects too. The bond structure is common in this industry: a July 2026 Legislative Finance Committee report counted about 82 renewable energy bond projects since 2000, including utility-scale wind, solar, and battery storage.

The rates apply to mechanics and laborers employed on the site of the project. For procurements issued on or after July 1, 2025, the site also includes off-site shops that fabricate the project's duct systems (section 13-4-10.1).

A separate rule sets apprentice staffing. The Energy Transition Act (Laws 2019, chapter 65, section 24) requires apprentices from a registered program on New Mexico facilities that generate electricity for New Mexico retail customers. It applies when the facility is built from a competitive solicitation issued after July 1, 2020. For projects that start on-site construction on or after January 1, 2026, the apprentice staffing requirement is 25%, applied to each occupation or trade performing services on the project, subject to the availability of qualified applicants. DWS administers the requirement under 11.2.3 NMAC.

Exemptions

The Act's limits are narrow, and one common assumption is wrong.

• Contracts of $60,000 or less. Section 13-4-11 applies only to a contract or project "in excess of" $60,000.
• Private projects with no public party and no bond. A project that no state or local body is a party to, and that no county or municipality issued an industrial revenue bond for, is outside the Act. Federal prevailing wage and apprenticeship (PWA) rules can still apply if the owner claims the increased federal credit.
• Small subcontracts are not exempt. DWS's Public Works Project Requirements sheet says all subcontractors and tiers, "regardless of contract amount," must pay prevailing wages and appear on the subcontractor list. Only professional services are excluded. The $60,000 figure decides who must register, not who must pay.
• Bonds issued before the 2025 amendment. House Bill 6 does not say how it treats a project whose bond was issued before the amendment took effect. Until DWS says otherwise, the safe reading treats an older bond project as covered.
• Apprentice staffing. The Energy Transition Act requirement does not reach facilities on the customer side of the electricity meter.

Every Step the Law Requires

DWS's requirements sheet adds that contractors register, and contracting agencies file the notice of award and subcontractor list, in the DWS Public Works and Apprenticeship Application (PWAA). It also says each employer pays its Public Works Apprentice and Training Act contribution to an approved apprenticeship program or to the state fund.

The steps above were written for a public contracting agency. Neither the Act nor the rule says who performs the agency's steps on an industrial revenue bond project. DWS told the Legislature that contractors on bond projects will need wage decisions from DWS to bid. Settle the wage decision and the payroll recipient with DWS and the issuing county or municipality before construction starts.

The wage decision assigns a construction type, and each type has its own rates: A (street, highway, utility, and light engineering), B (general building), C (residential), and H (heavy engineering, which lists power generating plants). When no single type is 80% or more of the contract cost, each type's rates apply to its own work (11.1.2.10 NMAC). The director sets the rates each year from collective bargaining agreements, effective January 1.

Certified Payroll and the Statement of Compliance

"Certified weekly payroll" describes the record, not the filing schedule. Under 11.1.2.9 NMAC, each contractor updates the payroll every week and the prime contractor delivers the payrolls to the contracting agency every month. A contracting agency may ask for them more often, so read the contract.

The rule numbers the payrolls from one, starting with the first payroll on the job, and lists what each must contain:

• the worker's full name (required on the first payroll the worker appears on) and classification;
• the hourly wage rate, fringe benefit rate, subsistence and zone pay, and overtime rate;
• the daily and weekly hours worked in each classification, including actual overtime hours;
• itemized deductions and net wages paid;
• the wage decision number;
• the Statement of Compliance form; and
• a fringe benefit statement and a fringe benefit annualization worksheet, when they apply.

The rule requires the Statement of Compliance with each payroll but does not describe the form. DWS's requirements sheet points contractors to the DWS Public Works page for forms, so take the current form from there. Contractors must also keep each worker's full Social Security number and current address for the director, and must certify each apprentice's registration on the first payroll the apprentice appears on (11.1.2.19 NMAC).

A payroll held by a contracting agency is a public record. Section 13-4-11(D) makes certified weekly payroll records of a contracting agency open to inspection under the Inspection of Public Records Act.

What an Underpayment Can Cost

Sections 13-4-13 and 13-4-14 were written around a public contracting agency that holds the contract funds. The sections we reviewed don’t spell out how withholding and termination work on a privately owned bond project. For how to keep the payroll that these remedies are measured against, read New Mexico Certified Payroll, Step by Step.