Single vs Double Asterisk on California Wage Determinations

Every California prevailing wage determination prints an expiration date. What most contractors miss is that the expiration date alone tells you almost nothing. The mark printed right after it, one asterisk or two, is what decides whether the rate you bid is the rate you pay on the last day of the job.

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First, how a determination attaches to your project

DIR issues general prevailing wage determinations twice a year, on February 22nd and August 22nd, and each takes effect ten days after its issue date, the effective-date rule set by 8 CCR section 16204. The determination in effect on your project's bid advertisement date is the one that governs the project. Everything about the asterisk builds on that: the question is never "what do the current books say," it is "what did the governing determination say, and what does its asterisk require now."

Single asterisk: the rate is locked

DIR's own FAQ states it directly: prevailing wage determinations with a single asterisk after the expiration date, which are in effect on the date of advertisement for bids, remain in effect for the life of the project.

In practice: if the determination governing your job carries a single asterisk, the rate it prints is your rate until the job closes out, even when DIR later publishes higher figures for the same craft. There is no mid-project catch-up and no retroactive increase. A contractor who dutifully updates to the new books at the next issuance is overpaying, which is money straight off the margin on every hour.

Double asterisk: increases are already scheduled

Two asterisks mean the opposite. Per DIR's FAQ, double asterisks indicate that the basic hourly wage rate, overtime, holiday pay rates and employer payments for work performed after the expiration date have been predetermined. If work extends past that date, the new rates must be paid.

The determination does not print the increase amounts. The footnote next to the expiration date tells you to contact DIR's Office of the Director, Research Unit at (415) 703-4774 for the specific predetermined rates, so get those figures before you bid and price the increase in. The dangerous mistake runs the other way from the single-asterisk case: a contractor who keeps paying the original rate after the expiration date is now underpaying prevailing wages on every hour, which is a wage violation the Labor Commissioner can assess with back wages and penalties. The increase applies automatically. Nobody sends a reminder.

How to read your determination

• Find the expiration date line on the determination PDF that was in effect on your bid advertisement date.
• One asterisk: lock the printed rate in for the project. Ignore later issuances for this job.
• Two asterisks: diary the expiration date, and get the predetermined rates from DIR's Research Unit (the determination's footnote gives the contact). From that date forward, pay the new rate.
• Save the governing determination PDF in the project file. DIR supersedes its website copies twice a year, and an auditor wants the version that governed your bid.

Either way, the determination's rates feed your weekly certified payroll: base, fringe, training fund, and overtime built on the basic rate. Our free prevailing wage calculator handles that arithmetic, and the California certified payroll page covers DIR reporting end to end.