Maryland Prevailing Wage

The Maryland Department of Labor states that the prevailing wage law applies to a construction project valued at $250,000 or more where either the contracting public body is a unit of State Government or an instrumentality of the State and there is any State funding for the project, or the contracting public body is a political subdivision, agency, person or entity such as a county and the State funds 25% or more of the project, including school construction. The law sits in the State Finance and Procurement Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.

Electronically, and only after you register. The department's instructions for contractors say the contractor shall electronically submit completed copies of certified payroll records to the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, Prevailing Wage Unit, by going online to the department's prevailing wage site and following the instructions, and that a contractor must register prior to submitting online certified payroll information. There is no paper alternative for the routine filing.

Fourteen calendar days, measured from the end of the payroll period, and the records have to arrive inside that window. The instruction sheet says payroll records must be electronically submitted and received within 14 calendar days after the end of each payroll period. Note the word received. A submission that fails in the system on day 14 is not a submission.

Two things, and the first one hurts more than the second. If the contractor is delinquent in submitting payroll records, processing of partial payment estimates may be held in abeyance pending receipt of the records, so the money stops. The contractor is also liable to the contracting public body for liquidated damages of $10.00 for each calendar day the records are late. Separately, the department states a fine of $20 per day for each worker paid less than the established rate.

Yes, and this is not the same as the federal habit of each firm filing its own. The instruction sheet says the contractor shall be responsible for certifying and submitting to the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, Prevailing Wage Unit, all of their subcontractors' payroll records covering work performed directly at the work site. If you are the prime, your subcontractors' lateness is your lateness.

The department puts it in one sentence: by certifying the payroll records, the contractor is attesting to the fact that the wage rates contained in the payroll records are not less than those established by the Commissioner as set forth in the contract, that the classification set forth for each worker or apprentice conforms with the work performed, and that the contractor or subcontractor has complied with the provisions of the law.

Maryland adds a daily trigger and a calendar trigger that Davis-Bacon does not have. The instruction sheet says overtime shall in no event be less than time and one-half the prevailing hourly rate for all hours worked in excess of ten hours in any one calendar day, in excess of forty hours per workweek, and for work performed on Sundays and legal holidays. A four day, ten hour schedule stays at straight time on the daily test, but an eleven hour day pays an overtime hour even in a short week, and Sunday work is premium regardless of weekly hours.

Stricter than the federal baseline. Only apprentices registered with the Maryland Apprenticeship and Training Council may be employed on prevailing wage projects, and apprentices are paid a percentage of the determined journey person's wage for the specific craft. A ratio of one journey person regularly employed to one apprentice is allowed, and no deviation from that ratio is permitted without prior written approval from the Council. The department also states plainly that no individual classified as a helper or a trainee may be employed on a prevailing wage project.

A Maryland obligation that shows up on the payroll itself. The Fund law at sections 17-601 through 17-606 of the State Finance and Procurement Article requires contractors and certain subcontractors on certain public work contracts to make contributions toward apprenticeship, with three options: participate in a registered apprenticeship training program, contribute to an organization that has one, or contribute to the State Apprenticeship and Training Fund. Obligations took effect July 1, 2013, and the law requires those contributions to be reported on the certified payroll records submitted under the prevailing wage law.

Three categories, and nothing else by default. A contractor or subcontractor may make deductions that are required by law, required by a collective bargaining agreement between a bona fide labor organization and the contractor or subcontractor, or contained in a written agreement between an employee and an employer undertaken at the beginning of employment, if the agreement is submitted by the employer to the public body awarding the public work and is approved by the public body as fair and reasonable. That third route has to happen at the start of employment and needs the public body's approval, so it is not a place to improvise mid-project.

Ask before the worker starts. The instructions say contractors and subcontractors employing a classification of worker for which a wage rate was not issued shall notify the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, Prevailing Wage Unit, for the purpose of obtaining the wage rate for that classification prior to being employed on the project. Maryland also states that laborers may not assist mechanics in the performance of the mechanic's work, nor use tools peculiar to established trades, which is a classification rule as much as a work rule.

We do the payroll math and produce the records you work from: straight time, overtime, the fringe credit by plan type and cash in lieu, per worker per week, plus the Rev. January 2025 federal WH-347 on federally funded work. To be straight with you: we do not file into Maryland's electronic certified payroll system, and we do not yet apply Maryland's ten-hour daily overtime rule automatically the way we apply California's daily rule, so a Maryland contractor enters those overtime hours. The state filings we offer today are California's A-1-131 and DIR eCPR XML and the Illinois CTP portal upload file. You file with the agency; we never submit anything to any agency on your behalf.