Check any Davis-Bacon wage determination.
Paste a wage determination number and see every classification, base rate and fringe the way SAM.gov publishes them. The same lookup that fills a WH-347.
Enter a wage determination number, like CA20250001, to see its classifications and rates. You can find this number on your contract's wage decision page.
Need to turn this wage determination into a weekly WH-347?
Try the sample workflow → No account required. Watermarked sample PDF. Ready for the real thing? Start free, 2 free payrolls →Wage determinations, in four lines
What a wage determination is
A wage determination is the Department of Labor's list of minimum hourly rates and fringe benefits for a given trade, county, and construction type, published under the Davis-Bacon Act. Every federally funded construction contract names one, and every worker's pay on that project has to meet or exceed it.
The number identifying it, like CA20250001, is printed on the wage decision pages attached to your contract or bid documents. It starts with a two-letter state code, so this same lookup works for any state's determinations, not just California's.
Where wage determinations come from
The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division sets the rates. SAM.gov publishes them, and has been the official source since June 14, 2019, when the old Wage Determinations OnLine site (WDOL.gov) was decommissioned and its data moved over.
That history is why people still search for "wage determinations online": it was the literal name of the retired system. There is no separate WDOL site to check any more. This lookup reads the same SAM.gov data, it just skips the search interface and returns the classifications and rates directly.
Looking up a determination is free, and SAM.gov does not require an account to view one. If a site charges you for access to Davis-Bacon rates, it is reselling public data.
What the WD number tells you
Reading CA20250001 from left to right:
| Segment | Example | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| State code | CA | The state the determination covers |
| Year | 2025 | The year the determination was issued |
| Sequence number | 0001 | Which determination it is within that state and year |
What the number does not tell you is which revision you are looking at. That is the modification number, tracked separately, and it changes when rates are updated. Two people can hold the same WD number and different rates if one of them is working from an older modification.
General and project wage determinations
There are two kinds, and they behave differently:
- General wage determinations cover a geographic area and construction type, are published on SAM.gov for anyone to use, and stay valid indefinitely until they are revised. This is what most contractors work from, and what this lookup returns.
- Project wage determinations are issued at a contracting agency's request, on Form SF-308, for one named project only. They expire 180 calendar days after issuance unless the agency incorporates them into a contract within that window, or gets an extension approved by the Wage and Hour Division.
Reading the rates this lookup returns
Every row that comes back has the same four pieces:
- Classification: the trade, worded the way the determination words it. It has to match the work actually performed, not a job title.
- Base rate: the minimum hourly cash wage for that classification.
- Fringe: the hourly fringe benefit amount owed on top, payable as bona fide benefits, as cash, or split between the two.
- Total: base plus fringe, the number a worker's full hourly package has to meet or beat.
A worker paid the correct base rate but no fringe is still underpaid, even though the base rate looks right on its own. How to read a Davis-Bacon wage determination walks through a full determination line by line, including how classifications and modifications interact.
Common questions
Where do I find the wage determination number for my contract?+
On the wage decision pages attached to your contract, solicitation, or award documents. If it is not in your own paperwork, the contracting officer or the general contractor who hired you has it.
Is this the same as WDOL.gov?+
It reads the same data. WDOL.gov (Wage Determinations OnLine) was decommissioned on June 14, 2019, and wage determinations moved to SAM.gov, which is now the official source. This lookup queries that SAM.gov data directly.
How often do wage determinations change?+
General determinations are revised as the Department of Labor updates rates, and each revision gets a new modification number. Which modification applies to your contract depends on when it was incorporated into that contract, not on which one is newest on SAM.gov today, so check the contract before assuming the currently published rates are the ones you owe.
What is an area wage determination?+
It is the everyday name for a general wage determination: one that covers a geographic area (a county or group of counties) and a construction type, rather than being issued for a single named project.
Do I need an account to use this lookup?+
No. No signup, no card, no limit on how many determinations you check. SAM.gov itself also lets you view wage determinations without logging in.
Does a wage determination cover state prevailing wage requirements too?+
No. A Davis-Bacon wage determination is federal. States with their own prevailing wage law publish their own rates separately, and where both apply to the same job, contractors generally have to meet whichever is higher. This lookup covers the federal determination.