Indiana has no state prevailing wage law. That is the short answer, and it is not the whole answer: federal Davis-Bacon still covers every federally funded Indiana job, with real rates and real weekly certified payroll.
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If you searched for Indiana prevailing wage rates for 2026 and could not find a state rate schedule, that is because there is not one. Indiana repealed its prevailing wage statute more than a decade ago and never replaced it. The Indiana Department of Labor says so in its own report to the General Assembly: effective July 1, 2015, 2015 House Enrolled Act No. 1019 repealed the Common Construction Wage Act, which the Department describes as Indiana's prevailing wage law. The U.S. Department of Labor's table of state prevailing wage contract thresholds lists Indiana at None.
1935
The original prevailing wage law
Indiana's prevailing wage law was adopted under Chapter 319 of the Acts of 1935 and set the wage rates paid to construction workers on Indiana public works projects.
1995
Renamed the Common Construction Wage Act
The law was amended and re-titled the Common Construction Wage Act. Ad hoc county committees adopted a scale of wages per project, and projects under $150,000 in actual construction cost were exempt.
2011 and 2013
The threshold climbs
The exemption threshold rose to $250,000 in 2011, and the General Assembly raised it again to $350,000 in 2013. A 2011 amendment also let an awarding agency adopt one wage scale covering every project bid within three months.
July 1, 2015
Repealed
2015 House Enrolled Act No. 1019 repealed the Common Construction Wage Act effective July 1, 2015. Section 53 of the same act ordered the Indiana Department of Labor to report on the effects of the repeal, which it did on June 30, 2021.
2016 to today
No state prevailing wage requirement
Indiana has had no state prevailing wage statute since the repeal. There is no state agency issuing Indiana wage determinations, no state rate schedule by county and classification, and no state certified payroll filing.
2026
Federal Davis-Bacon is the live obligation
What still binds an Indiana contractor is federal: Davis-Bacon and the Related Acts on federally funded and federally assisted work, plus whatever the contract itself says. That is the regime to plan around.
One narrow exception, and one caution
The exception: the U.S. Department of Labor's state threshold table carries a footnote for Indiana saying prevailing wages that applied to contracts for construction greater than $350,000 awarded before July 1, 2015 are still enforceable. If you are closing out a contract that old, the old scale can still matter. The caution: prevailing wage is a political question in every state, and we are not going to predict what a future Indiana General Assembly does. What we can tell you is what the state's own labor department and the federal wage and hour division say today. Confirm it yourself at in.gov Effects of the Repeal of the CCWA and dol.gov state prevailing wage thresholds before you bid.
Sources: in.gov Indiana DOL, Effects of the Repeal of the Indiana Common Construction Wage Act (June 30, 2021), iga.in.gov 2015 House Bill 1019, dol.gov Dollar Threshold Amount for Contract Coverage, in.gov Common Construction (Prevailing) Wage.
No state law does not mean no prevailing wage. It means the obligation comes from a different place, and you have to know which jobs carry it.
Federal money means Davis-Bacon
Davis-Bacon applies to contracts in excess of $2,000 for construction, alteration, or repair, including painting and decorating, of public buildings or public works. The Related Acts extend prevailing wage requirements to construction that federal agencies assist through grants, loans, loan guarantees and insurance. None of that changed in 2015.
The state's own labor department says the same
The Indiana Department of Labor's repeal report states that federal projects, or projects that otherwise received federal funding, were paid using Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, and that those projects were not affected by the repeal of the Common Construction Wage Act.
INDOT roadway work is the common case
The Department's report names INDOT roadway projects among the federally funded work paid at the Davis-Bacon rate. INDOT's contracts page tells bidders that minimum wage rates and fringe benefits are those required by the General Decision under the Davis-Bacon Act, and that the applicable general decisions are posted 10 days before the letting date.
Federal buildings, post offices and military bases
The Department's report lists construction or renovation of a federal office building, work performed at a post office, and work performed on military bases as examples of federally funded Indiana work carrying the federal prevailing wage.
No state rate schedule to check
There is no Indiana equivalent of a state county-by-county wage determination any more. If a rate is binding on your Indiana job, it came from a federal wage determination, the contract itself, or a collective bargaining agreement you signed.
Read the contract, every time
On a purely state or local Indiana job with no federal money, wages are a contract matter rather than a statutory one. Some awarding agencies still write wage and reporting terms into their specifications. That is enforceable as a contract term even without a prevailing wage statute behind it.
Sources: dol.gov Government Contracts, Construction, in.gov Indiana DOL repeal report, in.gov INDOT contracts.
There is no state page to bookmark. For federally funded Indiana work the governing document is the wage determination in your contract, and the official source is the federal wage determination system on sam.gov. Pay the determination that came with your contract, not whatever is newest online.
We deliberately do not print wage rates on this page. Rates change, and a stale number on a marketing site is how a contractor underpays a crew. Use sam.gov wage determinations and the determination attached to your contract. Walkthrough: how to search SAM.gov for a wage determination.
This is where the repeal changes your paperwork the most. Indiana has no state certified payroll statute, no state form and no state portal. On federally funded Indiana work the federal rules apply in full, and they are stricter about timing than most state schemes.
Weekly, not monthly
Davis-Bacon regulations and the contract clauses require the contractor to submit payroll information on a weekly basis for each week in which any covered work is performed.
Within 7 days after the regular payment date
The deadline runs from the payment date, not the week ending date: the payroll goes to the contracting or sponsoring agency within 7 days after the regular payment date (29 CFR 3.4(a)). Getting that reference point wrong is one of the most common late-filing causes we see.
A Statement of Compliance every week
Each certified payroll must be accompanied by a signed Statement of Compliance under 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(C), indicating that the payrolls are correct and complete and that each laborer or mechanic has been paid not less than the applicable Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rate for the work performed.
Form WH-347 is optional but standard
The U.S. Department of Labor publishes Form WH-347 as an optional format that satisfies the requirements, carrying OMB Control No. 1235-0008. Most federal agencies and prime contractors expect it or a close equivalent.
Keep the records three years
Payrolls and basic records must be maintained during the course of the work and preserved for three years after the date of completion of the contract, covering name, classification, hourly rates including fringe contributions or cash equivalent, daily and weekly hours, deductions, and actual wages paid.
Full Social Security numbers must never appear
A submitted weekly payroll must not carry a worker's full Social Security number. Use an individually identifying number such as the last four digits instead. Home addresses, phone numbers and email addresses stay off the submitted copy too.
Post the determination on site
The wage determination and the Department of Labor poster must be posted at all times by the contractor and its subcontractors at the site of the work, in a prominent and accessible place where workers can easily see them.
No federal money, no statutory filing
On a purely state or local Indiana job there is no state certified payroll requirement to satisfy, because there is no state prevailing wage act. Whatever reporting the specifications demand is a contract obligation. Do not assume it is nothing, and do not assume it is the WH-347 either. Read the contract.
Sources: dol.gov Form WH-347 and instructions, 29 CFR 3.4, 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3). Line-by-line help: WH-347 instructions and how to fill out the WH-347 step by step.
The rates below are illustrative placeholders. They are not Indiana rates and not actual state rates of any kind, because Indiana does not publish any. Use the wage determination attached to your own contract.
One laborer on a federally funded Indiana job. Say the wage determination in your contract shows a $32.00 base rate and a $16.00 hourly fringe rate for the classification. The crew works eight hours Monday through Friday plus four hours Saturday, so 44 hours in the payroll week, and the contract applies time and a half to the base rate for hours over 40.
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Straight time | 40 hrs at $32.00 base | $1,280.00 |
| Overtime hours | 4 hrs at 1.5 x $32.00 base = $48.00 | $192.00 |
| Total cash wages before fringe | $1,280.00 + $192.00 | $1,472.00 |
| Fringe obligation | 44 hrs at the $16.00 fringe rate | $704.00 |
| Total wage and fringe obligation | $1,472.00 + $704.00 | $2,176.00 |
| Credit for bona fide plans | 44 hrs at $11.50 contributed | $506.00 |
| Cash in lieu still owed | 44 hrs at the remaining $4.50 | $198.00 |
| Cash the worker actually receives | $1,472.00 + $198.00 | $1,670.00 |
Two things trip people up. The overtime multiplier runs on the base rate, so the fringe rate is not multiplied for the four overtime hours. And the fringe obligation is owed on all 44 hours, not just the straight-time 40. Underfund the plan and the shortfall becomes cash wages, which is the $198.00 line. On the WH-347 that plan credit is a weekly dollar total in column 6B and the cash in lieu is a weekly dollar total in column 6C.
Want this done for your own numbers? Use the free prevailing wage calculator, split the fringe with the fringe benefit calculator, or read how to calculate fringe benefits on prevailing wage projects.
The left column is short, and that is the point of this page. Davis-Bacon applies to federally funded and federally assisted construction in Indiana on its own authority, independent of anything the General Assembly does or undoes.
| Requirement | Indiana state law | Federal Davis-Bacon |
|---|---|---|
| Governing law | None since July 1, 2015 | Davis-Bacon Act and the Related Acts |
| Applies to | Nothing by statute | Federal and federally assisted construction |
| Contract threshold | None (dol.gov lists Indiana at None) | In excess of $2,000 |
| Agency | No state prevailing wage agency | U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division |
| Rate source | No state determinations issued | Wage determination in the contract |
| Payroll frequency | No state requirement | Weekly |
| Payroll deadline rule | No state requirement | Within 7 days after the regular payment date (29 CFR 3.4(a)) |
| Form | No state form exists | Optional Form WH-347 |
| Certification | No state certification | Statement of Compliance (29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(C)) |
| Record retention | No state requirement | 3 years after completion of the contract |
| Posting | No state requirement | Determination and DOL poster posted on site |
One practical consequence worth planning for: an Indiana contractor who works across the state line runs into state prevailing wage schemes that Indiana does not have. Illinois files monthly transcripts due by the 15th, Michigan reinstated its act in 2024 with its own submission deadline, and Ohio runs thresholds and a prevailing wage coordinator under ORC Chapter 4115. If your crews cross borders, the Indiana answer does not travel with them.
Sources: dol.gov state prevailing wage thresholds, dol.gov Davis-Bacon construction coverage, in.gov Indiana DOL Wage and Hour. Multi-state reading: multi-state prevailing wage compliance.
We produce the reports. You file them with the contracting agency. We never submit anything to any agency on your behalf.
To be straight with you: we build state-specific report formats for California, Illinois and New York today. Indiana has no state prevailing wage form to build, so Indiana work runs on the federal WH-347 and our certified payroll reports. If Indiana ever enacts a new prevailing wage law with a state format, that is the point we would build it.
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Start Free TrialNo. The Indiana Department of Labor states it plainly in its own report to the General Assembly: effective July 1, 2015, 2015 House Enrolled Act No. 1019 repealed the Common Construction Wage Act, which the Department calls Indiana's prevailing wage law. The U.S. Department of Labor's table of state prevailing wage contract thresholds lists Indiana's threshold as None. There is no state rate schedule to look up for a 2026 Indiana job.
Not state ones. If someone hands you an Indiana prevailing wage rate sheet for a 2026 job, it is almost certainly a federal Davis-Bacon wage determination, a rate written into the contract by the awarding agency, or a collective bargaining agreement rate. Those are all real obligations, but none of them is a state prevailing wage determination, because Indiana stopped issuing those in 2015.
Indiana's prevailing wage law was originally adopted under Chapter 319 of the Acts of 1935, and in 1995 it was amended and re-titled the Common Construction Wage Act. On a public works project with no federal funds, the awarding agency convened an ad hoc committee in the project's county that adopted a scale of wages by classification and skill level. The Indiana Court of Appeals defined common as the mathematical mode of the wages in the county in Union Township School Corporation v. State ex rel. Joyce, 706 N.E.2d 183 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998).
It moved over the life of the act. Projects under $150,000 in actual construction cost were exempt from 1995, the minimum rose to $250,000 in 2011, and the General Assembly raised it again to $350,000 in 2013. That last figure is the one in the federal footnote about contracts still enforceable after the repeal.
Yes, and this is the part most repeal coverage skips. The Indiana Department of Labor's own report says federal projects, or projects that otherwise received federal funding, were paid using Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, and that those projects were not affected by the repeal of the Common Construction Wage Act. Davis-Bacon applies on its own federal authority to contracts in excess of $2,000 for construction, alteration, or repair of public buildings or public works, and the Related Acts extend prevailing wage requirements to construction that federal agencies assist through grants, loans, loan guarantees and insurance.
Anything carrying federal money. The Indiana Department of Labor's report names federal office building construction or renovation, work at a post office, work on military bases, and Indiana Department of Transportation roadway projects as federally funded work paid at the Davis-Bacon rate. INDOT's own contracts page tells bidders the minimum wage rates and fringe benefits are the ones required by the General Decision under the Davis-Bacon Act, and that the applicable general decisions are posted 10 days before the letting date.
On a Davis-Bacon or Related Act job in Indiana, yes. The contractor submits a weekly certified payroll to the contracting or sponsoring federal agency within 7 days after the regular payment date (29 CFR 3.4(a)), and each one carries a Statement of Compliance under 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(C). Form WH-347 is the optional federal format most contractors use. On a purely state or local Indiana job with no federal money, there is no state certified payroll statute to file under, so your obligation is whatever the contract and the awarding agency require. Read the contract.
No. There is no Indiana state prevailing wage law, so there is no state certified payroll form and no state portal to upload one to. For federally funded Indiana work the format is the federal WH-347 or the agency's own equivalent. Anyone selling you an Indiana state certified payroll form is selling you something that does not exist.
A narrow set. The U.S. Department of Labor's state threshold table carries a footnote for Indiana saying prevailing wages that applied to contracts for construction greater than $350,000 awarded before July 1, 2015 are still enforceable. That is a 2015-and-earlier contract question, not a 2026 bidding question. The Indiana Department of Labor still keeps a Common Construction Wage page for the historical record.
We produce the certified payroll records you submit on federally funded Indiana work. Enter hours by day and classification and we calculate straight time, overtime, the fringe credit and cash in lieu, then generate the Rev. January 2025 federal WH-347 with its Statement of Compliance. Lydia flags wages below the rate you entered for the classification before you certify. You file with the contracting agency; we do not submit anything to any agency on your behalf.
Start the free trial. Enter hours by day and classification, and get a certified payroll report with the base rate, overtime, fringe credit and cash in lieu already worked out.
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Prevailing Wage Laws by State
Which states have a law in 2026, and which repealed theirs.
Davis-Bacon Act Guide
The federal rules that still cover Indiana federal work.
Ohio Prevailing Wage
ORC 4115 thresholds, coordinator and certified payroll.
Michigan Prevailing Wage
Repealed in 2018, reinstated in 2024 under Act 10.