What is certified payroll?
Certified payroll is a weekly record of what every worker on a public job was paid, submitted with a signed Statement of Compliance swearing the payroll is correct and that everyone got at least the prevailing wage. It is required on federally funded construction and on most state and local public work.
If you are doing public work, this is the paperwork that decides whether you get paid and whether you are allowed to bid the next one. It is also the paperwork most small contractors learn about after they have already won the job.
What goes on it
A weekly payroll for every laborer and mechanic on the site, showing each worker's classification, hours worked each day, rate of pay, gross, deductions and net, plus fringe benefits. Attached to it is a Statement of Compliance, signed by you or by whoever pays or supervises the payment of your people, certifying the payroll is correct and complete.
Four things people get wrong
Form WH-347 is optional, not mandatory. The federal rule at 29 CFR 5.5 says the required information "may be submitted using Optional Form WH-347 or in any other format desired." Plenty of agencies have their own portal or spreadsheet. What is mandatory is the information and the signed statement, not that specific piece of paper.
Do not put full Social Security numbers on the weekly submission. The rule is explicit that SSNs, home addresses, phone numbers and email addresses must not be included on weekly transmittals. Each worker gets an individually identifying number instead, such as the last four digits of their Social Security number. You keep the full details in your own records; you do not mail them out every week.
The retention clock starts at the end of the contract, not at the payroll date. Federally, records must be preserved for at least three years after all the work on the prime contract is completed. A payroll from month one of a two-year job is kept for five years, not three. States set their own periods on state-funded work, and New Jersey's Prevailing Wage Act, for example, requires two years from the date of payment, so on a job touching both you keep to whichever is longer.
Not producing the records is its own violation. Failing to submit them or make them available can be grounds for debarment, and a contractor who does not produce records within the time the Wage and Hour Division asks for them is barred from introducing those records as evidence later. Losing the paperwork is not a neutral outcome.
Who has to file
Any contractor or subcontractor on a covered public job, which means the requirement flows down. A prime can require its subs to submit through it rather than directly to the agency, but somebody is filing every week for every worker on that site, and a sub who does not file is the prime's problem and then very quickly their own.
The part that makes it painful
None of the above is hard on its own. What makes certified payroll miserable is assembling it weekly from time cards, a wage determination, and a fringe calculation, for several people across several jobs, while the work is still going. The information all exists at the moment the crew clocks out. It just usually exists in a truck rather than in a report.
Common questions
Do I have to use Form WH-347? No. The federal rule calls it Optional Form WH-347 and allows the required information to be submitted "in any other format desired." Many agencies have their own portal. The signed Statement of Compliance is what is not optional.
How often is certified payroll submitted? Weekly, for every week any covered work is performed, including weeks where somebody worked one day.
Should Social Security numbers go on certified payroll? No. Full SSNs, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses must not appear on the weekly transmittal. Use an individually identifying number such as the last four of the SSN and keep the full record yourself.
How long do certified payroll records have to be kept? Federally, at least three years after all work on the prime contract is completed, which is longer than three years from the payroll itself on any job lasting more than a few months. State rules differ on state-funded work; New Jersey requires two years from the date of payment. Keep to whichever period is longer.
What happens if I do not file certified payroll? Payments can be withheld, and failure to submit the records or make them available can be grounds for debarment from public work. Separately, records not produced when the Wage and Hour Division asks cannot be used as evidence in your defense afterwards.
Is certified payroll the same as prevailing wage? No, they are two halves of the same obligation. Prevailing wage is the rate you must pay. Certified payroll is the weekly proof that you paid it.