Published date: 11/20/2025
Aliecia Taormina, CCEP, MCA has over 20 years of experience in construction (including a role as a Senior Compliance Manager of a Fortune 300 contractor), accumulating extensive prevailing wage and Davis-Bacon knowledge over her career.
Question
When a manufacturer’s representative comes out to perform equipment startup, are they exempt from prevailing wages? Several of these companies are saying they don’t have a prevailing wage coordinator and have never paid prevailing wage before.
Answer: I appreciate this question—it’s a great one. And, true to prevailing wage principles, the answer is: it depends. Based on my past research, here’s what I’ve found:
- For Davis-Bacon Act projects, if equipment startup occurs before the project is officially turned over to the client, that work is generally considered covered under prevailing wage requirements. However, if the project has already been turned over and the startup happens afterward, there’s a possibility that the work may not be classified as covered. And to add another fun layer of “complicated”, what exactly do you mean by “startup”? Is it someone who is going to do the work of a laborer or mechanic, so to say, manual work? Or is it a highly specialized employee who is hands off and simply watches others perform the work? In this instance, then it wouldn’t be covered work at all. (See? “It depends” is a real thing 😉)
- On the other hand, for state projects, such as those in California, this type of work is typically treated as covered work and should be performed with prevailing wage compliance in mind.
Question
A general contractor just told me that I cannot submit a final “no work” certified payroll. I’ve never heard of that before. Is this correct for the state of Pennsylvania?
Answer: Interesting question, from my understanding the Pennsylvania Prevailing wage regulations (9.103 (12)) require contractors to submit a final certified payroll at the conclusion of a public works project of a public works project – even if no work was performed. While I usually don’t like to give this answer, I would absolutely check-in with the PA Department of Labor & Industry and get their response in writing.
Question
We’re on a DBA project in California and have a question about Working Foreman hours. The DBA 20% rule requires tracking all hours (labor and supervisory) to determine if a foreman exceeded the 20% labor threshold for the week. But the owner’s daily man-hour report does not allow us to include non-labor/supervisory time. What is the proper recordkeeping method to stay compliant with DBA weekly classifications while also adhering to the owner’s daily reporting restriction?
Answer: Well, I haven’t run across this exact scenario in the past. In order to comply with the Davis-Bacon Act’s 20% rule and maintain accurate Certified Payroll Reports, while honoring the owner’s daily reporting restriction, a contractor should keep a complete internal timesheet of all hours each worker spends on site which includes supervisory/non-labor hours limiting the owner-facing daily report to only the labor hours. You should then use the full timecard records to produce the payroll, listing each employee under the proper prevailing-wage classification for the hours of physical labor they performed. Purely supervisory hours (with no manual work) are omitted from the CPR and from the daily log since those do not count as “laborer/mechanic” time under Davis-Bacon. This dual recordkeeping approach ensures all hours are accounted for in determining if a worker exceeded the 20% labor threshold, without violating the owner’s rule against reporting non-labor hours on daily logs. While it’s not ideal by any means, at least you’re keeping a true and accurate record that you can refer to in the event you are ever questioned.
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