Prevailing wage

"Prevailing wage" names several different rules: a floor for construction workers on federally funded projects (Davis-Bacon and its Related Acts), a floor for service employees on federal service contracts (the Service Contract Act), the wage an employer must promise before it can hire on an H-1B, H-1B1, E-3, H-2A, H-2B or CW-1 visa or sponsor a permanent resident (the Department of Labor's prevailing wage determinations and the H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rate), and the state laws that do the same for state and local public works. These 15 pages explain each rule from its statute and regulations and point to where the official figures are published. They explain; they do not advise.

The one table this section publishes

• State prevailing wage laws: contract thresholdsThe Department of Labor's table of the dollar amount at which each state's own prevailing wage law applies to a public construction contract: 29 jurisdictions listed and 22 states without a law, as DOL dated it January 1, 2023, with DOL's footnotes.

Davis-Bacon: federal and federally assisted construction

• Davis-Bacon Act BasicsWhat the Davis-Bacon Act requires on federally funded construction: who is covered, how wage determinations set the floor, and where the rules are written.
• How Davis-Bacon Rates Are DeterminedHow the Wage and Hour Division turns construction wage surveys into Davis-Bacon rates after the 2023 rule: the 30 percent rule, state rates and ECI updates.
• Davis-Bacon Fringe BenefitsWhat counts as a bona fide fringe benefit under Davis-Bacon, how cash and contributions combine to meet the rate, annualization and unfunded plans.
• The Davis-Bacon Related ActsThe federal assistance statutes that carry Davis-Bacon labor standards to grants, loans and insurance: how coverage attaches and where DOL lists them.
• How to Look Up a Wage DeterminationWhere Davis-Bacon and Service Contract Act wage determinations are published on SAM.gov, how to find the right one, and how to read its rates and dates.

Service Contract Act: federal service contracts

• Service Contract Act BasicsThe McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act: which federal service contracts it covers, how wage and fringe determinations work, and where the rules live.
• SCA Health and Welfare Benefit RateHow the Service Contract Act's nationwide health and welfare benefit rate is set from the Employment Cost Index under 29 CFR 4.52 and announced each year.
• SCA ConformancesWhat an SCA conformance is: how a contractor classifies and pays an occupation missing from the wage determination under 29 CFR 4.6(b)(2), and DOL's review.

Immigration programs: the OFLC prevailing wage

• H-1B Prevailing Wage LevelsHow the four prevailing wage levels for H-1B, H-1B1, E-3 and PERM cases are built from OEWS data, where FLAG wage search gets them, and what each level means.
• PERM Prevailing Wage DeterminationsHow a PERM employer gets a prevailing wage determination from the NPWC: Form ETA-9141, the rules in 20 CFR 656.40, validity periods and appeals.
• H-2B Prevailing WageHow the prevailing wage for H-2B temporary nonagricultural workers is set under 20 CFR 655.10: the OEWS mean, employer surveys, validity, highest-of rule.
• H-2A Adverse Effect Wage RateThe AEWR H-2A farm employers must offer: the highest-of rule in 20 CFR 655.120, OEWS-based skill levels since October 2025, and where the rates are published.
• CW-1 Prevailing Wage (Northern Marianas)How the prevailing wage for CW-1 workers in the Northern Mariana Islands is set under 20 CFR 655.410: the Governor's survey, Guam OEWS means and Form ETA-9141C.

Across the rules

• Prevailing Wage vs Minimum WageHow a prevailing wage differs from a minimum wage: who sets each, who is covered, how the figures are found, how they stack, and which page shows which.

What this section does not do

It does not mirror wage determinations: they are revised continuously, SAM.gov is the system of record and has no documented bulk download, and the determination incorporated into a contract is the only one that governs it. It does not reproduce the H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rate workbook or a CW-1 wage table: the Federal Register notice carries no table and the Department of Labor publishes no CW-1 file, so the pages link the sources and the attempt is recorded in the repository's data-sources document. It does not publish H-1B disclosure records by employer; the site has no pages about any employer or any person. The occupation pages show the BLS survey data that the Service Contract Act rates, the OFLC wage levels and the AEWRs are derived from, but a survey percentile is not a legal rate.

Related

• Minimum wage by state and the federal minimum wage, which apply to covered employment generally.
• Federal pay tables for what the government pays its own employees.
• Learn: how BLS measures wages and how to read a percentile table.

Most recent review or data read: October 18, 2026. Corrections: see the about page.