Washington State Prevailing Wages on Public Works Act Overview

Overview & Background

Prevailing Wages on Public Works Act (Revised Code of Washington Chapter 39.12) is designed to protect construction workers from being underpaid on public projects by requiring that they be paid prevailing wages. While the Law applies to all construction projects receiving public funding, this guide will focus specifically on renewable energy construction projects.

Importantly, the Law applies regardless of the amount of public funding involved or how those funds are delivered, whether through Washington’s Clean Energy Fund or a separate method.

Additionally, any privately funded construction project becomes subject to prevailing wage requirements if a government agency agrees to rent, lease, or purchase 50% or more of the project.

Projects Required to Comply

In summary, there are two ways a construction project can become subject to prevailing wage requirements:
(1) If the project receives any public funding (regardless of size or delivery method).
(2) If 50% or more of the project is rented, leased, or purchased by a government agency after the completion of construction.

Only work involving construction, reconstruction, maintenance, or repair activities on the project is subject to prevailing wage requirements.

According to the Revised Code of Washington Chapter 39.12 text, construction, maintenance, or repair activities include (but are not limited to):
• Building service maintenance (janitorial) contracts
• Landscape construction and grounds maintenance
• Small projects (no minimum dollar amount) such as maintenance and repairs including “small works” roster contracts
• Off-site work such as custom fabrication for the public works project
• Contractors subcontracting out all work

Additionally, in order to bid on a prevailing wage project, it is a pre-requisite that all contractors and subcontractors are a "responsible bidder." This means that all contractors and subcontractors must:

(1) Have a Valid Unified Business Identifier (UBI).

(2) Have a contractor's registration/license.

(3) Have industrial insurance coverage for all employees.

(4) Not be currently debarred from bidding on public projects with prevailing wage requirements.

(5) Attend L&I training on public works and prevailing wage Law unless the contractor has been in business for 3+ years and completed 3+ public works projects.

Compliance Guidelines

Compliance with prevailing wage requirements is necessary in order to be paid any public funds. Proper compliance guidelines are as follows:

(1) Create a My L&I account (linked below) and set up PWIA Portal access.

(2) File the "Statement of Intent to Pay Prevailing Wages" document directly following the contract being awarded via the PWIA Portal. This document asks basic questions about the project.

(3) Post the "Statement of Intent to Pay Prevailing Wages" document on the job site in a conspicuous location.

(4) Maintain weekly Certified Payroll Reports that must be submitted at least monthly via the PWIA Portal. Additionally, this implies that the contractor and/or subcontractor(s) must pay the proper prevailing wage rates listed in the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries Prevailing Wage Database (linked below).

(5) After the completion of all construction work, the "Affidavit of Wages Paid" document (which states the work completed and wage rates that were paid) must be filed via the PWIA Portal.

(6) The contractor must check on all subcontractors to ensure they have completed all required forms via the PWIA Portal.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

If a contractor is found to have failed to pay prevailing wages, the Department of Labor and Industries will assess the following penalties:

(1) A fine of $5,000 or 50% of the total prevailing wage violation (whichever is greater).

(2) Full back pay owed, plus interest accrued at 1% per month.

(3) Temporary disqualification from bidding on public works contracts until all penalties and back wages are paid in full.

If a contractor is found to have violated prevailing wage requirements for a second time within five years of a prior violation, they will be barred from bidding on any public works contracts for two years, beginning on the date they are notified of the new violation.

There is also an alternate resolution method after a complaint is filed. If a contractor pays unpaid wages (with 1% interest per month), and a $1,000 or 20% penalty (whichever is greater) before a notice of violation is issued from the Department of Labor and Industries, the violation is considered resolved without full penalties. This alternative resolution method may only be used once during a five-year period. If this resolution method is used more than once in a five-year period, the penalties listed above apply.

DSPTCH Reimagines Compliance.


DSPTCH takes a "TurboTax" approach to Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship Compliance. Our software centric solution drastically reduces costs, provides predictable best-in-class pricing, and radically automates tedium vs industry standard and auditor-centric solutions. Check out the DSPTCH difference today!

Compare Compliance Tools!
Apprentice Tracking

· Track any apprentice program
· DOL Compliance Safeguards
· DOL Direct integrations
· Calculate and monitor wage progression schedules
· Visibility across sub-contractors, asset owners, and apprenticeship sponsors!



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Prevailing Wages

· Real-time pre-payroll calculations for prevailing wages, fringes, wage-progression schedules
· Ensure accuracy prior to payroll
· Turnkey overtime for every state, province, and federal standard
· Detailed paystub breakdowns for intentional disregard safeguards
· Database of similar projects and wage progression monitoring
· Automated WH347 generation

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Live Penalty Calcs

· Cross company reporting for all subcontractors
· Unified owner visibility
· Real time calculations for every worker, sub contractor and IRA Cure Provision
· Apprenticeship hours and ratio compliance checks
· Worker, Backpay, and Interest Calculations for all hours worked

Watch the Demo
DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software dashboard showcasing job management and worker utilization for Inflation Reduction Act compliance. Features include a job list with readiness status, worker utilization graph by provider, and billable hours breakdown per customer and provider. The dashboard highlights PWA compliance tools and real-time tracking for technician efficiency and productivity.

DSPTCH is the most modern, comprehensive & cost-effective IRA compliance solution

Simplify prevailing wage, apprenticeship, and project tax credit documentation with a single pane of glass.

Solution

The most comprehensive and integrated solution

DSPTCH

Prevailing Wage Tracking software Providers

Audit firms for prevailing wage and apprenticeship

Prevailing wage payroll vendors

Pricing

$

Per active worker per month or
Project month

$
($$$$ after hiring auditors to fulfill additional IRA compliance requirements)

Based on total project value, including materials and logistics

$$$$

Based on monthly retainer + hourly fees + revision audit hours + sub contractors

$$$

Varies hours worked, number of employees, and add-on integrations

Examples
  • DSPTCH
  • LCP Tracker
  • Elation
  • eMars
  • KPMG
  • PWC
  • Alliant
  • Baker Tilly
  • EBacon
  • Points North
  • HCM Tradeseal
  • Payroll4Construction
Turn by Turn Navigation
Largest Industry Workforce Network
Supports Internal Employees

Portal to upload data

$100+/ hr

Migrate Payroll System

Supports External Vendors
Predictable Pricing

Very Predictable, Scales with workers on projects

Increases with total project value (including materials, engineering, and logistics spend), typically requires audit firm to review

Volatile and very unpredictable. Based on retainer fee + hourly rate for support of any sub contractor follow ups

Only supports your company in payroll for prevailing wages, weak integration with benefits providers

Built for the IRA
Allows Apprentice Sponsors and Employers to simultaneously track DOL Logs
Natively tracks Apprentice hours & Wage Progression
Integrates with 100+ Payroll & HRIS systems
Mobile App
Field Forms

Varies

Generates Certified payroll reports

After each sub contractor uploading hours and performs calculations

Each sub contractor submits completed certified payroll forms or specific files

Built for Davis Bacon, adds tedious unnecessary requirements
Turnkey state, federal, provincial overtime

Varies, typically yes

Adopted organically by workers, outside of IRA projects

Manage Apprentices, Wages, Contractors, Forms, and Reporting all in one!

A fully integrated suite that plays nicely with your existing systems.

See the difference DSPTCH provides today!

DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software project overview page for ABC Project, highlighting checklist completion for Inflation Reduction Act compliance. Displays onboarding progress, ongoing maintenance checks, and tax credit compliance status. Includes contractor compliance summaries with completed and failed checks for specific jobs, helping track IRA compliance and prevailing wage obligations in real time.DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software job page for ABC Project Gen Shop displaying apprenticeship labor hours for Inflation Reduction Act compliance. Shows required apprentice labor percentage, hours worked by apprentices versus non-apprentices, and daily labor hour tracking graph. Includes detailed apprentice profiles with verification status, expected wage, hours completed, and wage period, aiding PWA compliance and tracking of apprenticeship requirements.
DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software time card page for employee Brett Johnson, displaying total hours, per diem, wage rate, and hourly rates for Inflation Reduction Act compliance. Shows verified time entries, prevailing wage obligations, pay breakdown, overtime hours, and total outstanding obligations. Includes approval history and links to payroll actuals, ensuring accurate tracking for IRA compliance and prevailing wage calculations.

Real Time Obligation and Expectation Payroll Calculations

Understand prevailing wage, fringe, wage progression schedules, and per diem expectations before running payroll! Although this seems obvious, other tools simply validate payroll in the rear-view mirror. That create issues, restitution payroll, backpay, and interest obligations. DSPTCH allows you and your sub contractors avoid issues entirely.

Reconcile pay requirements to the penny

DSPTCH integrates directly with 100+ payroll systems to minimize headaches and ensure business continuity. From there, we provide rich, deeply detailed breakdowns of every single line item a worker is paid and the calculations for compliance. This ensures all sub contractors are providing the level of detail required to avoid intentional disregard and the type of precision that many payroll systems simply don't support today.

Ensure Fringe compliance and automate subcontractor calculations

Our robust calculations compute accrue fringe benefits alongside calculate exact Bona Fide Fringe for every worker on site. This avoids countless hours of reconciliation, manual auditor reviews, and mountains of documentation through direct payroll syncs.

It's 2025, it's time for a modern PWA solution.

DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software time card actuals page for employee Brett Johnson, providing a down-to-the-penny breakdown of wages, earnings, taxes, retirement contributions, insurance deductions, and health benefits. Includes detailed prevailing wage breakdowns, overtime calculations, per diem, and tax contributions to ensure accurate reporting for Inflation Reduction Act compliance and prevailing wage obligations.

Reconcile real time actuals and automatically generate certified payroll reports

DSPTCH real time payroll syncs (with 100+ payroll systems natively supported) automatically provide detailed reconciliations with wage, fringe, per-diem, and company policy accruals. With that in place, DSPTCH directly and automatically generates certified payroll reports for every single worker as soon as payroll is run. These direct integrations short-circuit countless audit requirements by ensuring accuracy from the onset.

IRA compliance has never been more streamlined and efficient.

DSPTCH aims to empower the future of work.

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