Davis-Bacon Prevailing Wage Rates: How to Find Your County Rate

A Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rate is two numbers: a base cash rate plus an hourly fringe. Together they are the hourly prevailing rate you owe one trade, in one county, for one construction type. Searchers call these Davis Bacon wage rates; the government hyphenates it Davis-Bacon, but it is the same figure. The U.S. Department of Labor sets the rates and publishes them as wage determinations on SAM.gov. To find yours, route down three levels: state, then county, then trade. This page is the national index for that lookup: what the rate is, where to get it, and which schedule governs your job (federal, state, or both). Every rate page carries its WD number, effective date, and a source link, re-synced weekly. That fills a real gap. SAM.gov serves determinations as a search app and PDFs, not a table you can read fast.

What a Davis-Bacon wage rate is: base + fringe, per trade, per county, per type

There is no single national Davis-Bacon rate. It moves on four axes, and you fix all four to get the right figure.

The federal rule attaches to any covered federal construction contract over $2,000 (DOL Wage and Hour Division). Classification means the trade the worker performs, not the label on your org chart. The determination is an area wage determination: one schedule covers a county or a set of counties, and SAM.gov also labels it a general decision, or wage decision. The fringe is owed for every hour worked, not paid as a flat weekly amount. That gap is where most back-wage findings start (certified-payroll fringe per hour). To see a full determination decoded field by field, read how to read a wage determination.

Four inputs set one rate: your trade, your county, the construction type, and the base rate plus hourly fringe that together are the total you owe.

Where can I find Davis-Bacon wage rates?

Federal determinations sit on SAM.gov under Wage Determinations, issued by the DOL Wage and Hour Division and published on the GSA-run platform. These are U.S. government works, so they carry no copyright and anyone may republish them. The problem is not access. It is readability. SAM.gov delivers each determination through a React-based search app and downloadable PDFs, with zero clean per-classification tables you can scan. That is the gap this hub fills: we render the same official numbers as a dated, readable rate table and link the source on every page, as set out in how we source rates. It is the fastest way to check Davis Bacon wage rates without fighting the SAM.gov search app. State rates live somewhere else entirely; each state labor department publishes its own schedule.

How do I find my local prevailing wage?

The path is always the same three hops: state, county, trade. For a Houston job you would go from Texas, to Harris County, to electrician, and read the base and fringe off that one page. Think of this hub as a prevailing rate lookup: a national starting point that hands you to the right county page. Use the index below to start at your state, then drill to your county and trade.

Read and apply a determination

• How to Read a Davis-Bacon Wage Determination — decode the WD number, the four construction types, and the base + fringe columns, field by field.
• Prevailing Wage vs Davis-Bacon: Which Rate Applies — federal, state, or both, and why the higher rate governs per trade.
• Certified Payroll Calculator — multiply fringe by actual hours and credit bona-fide benefits, per county.

Pay and report it (certified payroll)

• Certified Payroll Requirements — the full weekly WH-347 workflow for federal jobs over $2,000.
• How to Fill Out the WH-347 — line by line, with a worked worker row.
• Davis-Bacon Fringe Benefits Calculation — the per-hour method, not a flat weekly amount.
• Common Certified Payroll Mistakes — the errors that trigger back wages.
• Do Davis-Bacon Wages Have to Be Paid Weekly? — the pay rule versus the submission rule.
• Certified Payroll for a No-Work Week — when you still file a No Work Performed statement.
• Will QuickBooks Do Certified Payroll? — what it can and cannot do.

Choose compliance software

• Certified Payroll Software: Independent Comparison — LCPtracker, eBacon, Points North, and more.
• eBacon vs LCPtracker — an honest, affiliate-supported head-to-head.
• GC-Required Certified Payroll Software — how to comply when your prime mandates the platform.

How we source these rates

• How We Source Our Prevailing Wage Rates — every figure from SAM.gov and state schedules, dated.
• Editorial Process — how we source, verify, and correct rate content.

Which prevailing wage applies: federal, state, or both?

This is the fork most rate lookups skip, and it decides which schedule you open. About half the states, commonly counted between 26 and 30, keep their own prevailing-wage law, and in a strong one the state rate often runs above the federal Davis-Bacon rate.

The expensive miss is the bottom-left trap: a job that also carries state coverage, where you pull only the federal SAM.gov figure and underpay the gap on every hour. In California or New York the state number is frequently the higher one. The full routing logic, from funding source to governing law to schedule, sits in Davis-Bacon vs state prevailing wage.

Who funds the job decides which schedule you owe. When both a federal contract and a state law apply, the higher rate governs per classification.

Prevailing wage rates by county

Davis Bacon wage rates are set by geography, and contractors learn that the hard way. As one put it on r/Contractor after a federal job went sideways: "I've worked extensively on the East coast and prevailing wages differ considerably from one county to another, and state by state." The determination is keyed to the county where the work happens, so a statewide bidder checks each site.

Two live references, both illustrative; pull the current determination for the real number:

• Harris County, TX (electrician). Covered by a SAM.gov general determination such as WD# TX20210253 (building construction). Federal-only, because Texas rates on a federally funded job come from SAM.gov. See the live, dated page: Harris County electrician.
• Los Angeles County, CA (electrician). Covered by the California DIR general prevailing wage determination for Los Angeles County (electrician / inside wireman), reissued on a semi-annual cycle. Because California runs its own law, the page shows the federal and state rates side by side: Los Angeles County electrician.

What makes these rate pages trustworthy: WD number, date, and source

A provenance line reads like this (illustrative): WD# TX20210253, Mod 12, effective 3 January 2025 — synced 8 July 2026 · official source. The WD number keys the determination by state and year, the modification tells you which revision it is, and the effective date is when the rate applies. If any field on our page disagrees with SAM.gov, the official record wins; the mechanics are spelled out in how we source rates. That provenance is what separates trustworthy Davis Bacon wage rates from a number copied off a forum. Getting a covered rate wrong is expensive: you can owe back wages, and in serious cases face debarment from federal contracting. So the standing rule holds: verify the current wage determination on SAM.gov before you bid or pay.

From the rate to your payroll

Once you have the base and fringe, decode the full determination with how to read a wage determination, split the base from the fringe you owe per hour worked in fringe per hour, run the numbers in the free certified payroll calculator, then report the week on form WH-347. The whole workflow (pull the rate, classify, pay the fringe per hour, file the report) lives in the certified payroll guide. A rate is worthless until it lands correctly on a paycheck and a compliant report.

Frequently asked questions