Does Prevailing Wage Determination Expire? (w/Examples) + FAQs

Yes, prevailing wage determinations expire. California issues new general determinations twice a year, on February 22 and August 22. Each one carries its own expiration date, and that date decides how long a contractor can keep using the listed rates.

For contractors on California public works, that expiration date is not a small detail. Using outdated rates can trigger a wage assessment, withheld contract funds, or even debarment. Anyone bidding a project that spans an expiration date needs to know exactly when the old rates stop applying.

What a Prevailing Wage Determination Covers

A general prevailing wage determination sets the pay rate for one craft in one area. It covers the base hourly rate, overtime, holiday pay, and required employer payments. The director of California's Department of Industrial Relations issues each one for an entire county at a time.

A plumber's rate in one determination covers the whole county at once. It applies to a school gym and a city parking structure alike. It also covers union and non-union crews equally, with no exception for either group.

Not every craft has a general determination at a given time. When a classification is missing, the awarding body can ask for a special determination. That request must go in at least 45 days before the bid date. A missing classification is not a reason to skip prevailing wage.

The phrase "prevailing wage determination" also appears in immigration law. Employers sponsoring a foreign worker through PERM or an H-1B visa must request one from DOL's prevailing wage program too. That determination follows separate immigration rules, not construction rules. If a PERM case brought you here, these rules do not apply to your case.

This split matters because a contractor working in two counties may see two different rates for the same craft. A rate that applies in Los Angeles County does not carry over to Fresno County on its own. Always check the rate sheet for the exact county where the work happens.

The "required employer payments" line often trips up new bidders. It can include health coverage, pension contributions, vacation pay, and training fund dues, on top of the base hourly wage. A bid that only prices the base rate, and skips those extra payments, will run short the moment payroll starts. Reading every line of the determination, not only the headline hourly figure, is the only reliable method for pricing a public works bid.

Why Every Determination Has an Expiration Date

Every general determination lists three dates. The issue date is when the director mails the new determination. Determinations go out twice a year, in February and August. The effective date follows ten days later.

That ten-day gap gives awarding bodies and contractors a short window. They can update bid documents before the new rates take hold. Miss that window, and a bid can go out under a rate sheet that is about to change.

The expiration date exists because wage rates are not fixed forever. They are a snapshot the director revisits on a set schedule. According to the state's own prevailing wage guidance, the expiration date marks when a determination becomes subject to change. It does not automatically kill the rate for a project already underway.

That gap between "subject to change" and "dead" is where the asterisk rules matter most. A project awarded right before an expiration date does not always jump to new rates the moment the old one expires. California builds a carryover rule into every determination for exactly this reason. Ongoing projects are not forced to renegotiate wages every six months.

Reading the asterisk column is not optional paperwork. It decides whether last year's rate sheet is still the correct one for today's payroll run. Getting this wrong is one of the most common ways a compliant contractor ends up with an unplanned wage assessment.

Single-Asterisk vs. Double-Asterisk Rules

A single asterisk protects a contractor who bid under one rate sheet, stopping a rate increase from hitting the project mid-job. A double asterisk works in reverse. It flags a rate increase that is already scheduled. The contractor must honor it once the calendar reaches that date, no matter what the original bid assumed.

Many first-time public works bidders treat the two markings as the same thing. They are not. A single asterisk shields a contractor from a hike; a double asterisk warns that a hike is already due. Checking the table above before pricing labor is the surest method to keep the two markings from getting mixed up.

Federal Davis-Bacon Rules vs. California's System

The federal government runs a parallel system for federal construction contracts. It comes from the Davis-Bacon Act, run by the Department of Labor. Federal wage determinations get published and updated on the government's contracting site. A contracting officer must add the current one to the bid package before award.

The federal schedule does not match California's twice-a-year pattern. A federal determination can change between publications rather than on a fixed calendar. The core idea is still the same: the government checks what workers get paid in an area, then updates the required minimum.

Does my state differ from the federal baseline? Yes, often by a wide margin. States that run their own prevailing wage laws, including California, New York, and Illinois, add their own classifications, issue schedules, and enforcement agencies. A project with both federal and state money may need to follow whichever standard pays more for each craft.

That means a contractor cannot assume the state rate alone covers a federally funded job. A rule that locks a determination for the life of a California project may not exist under a different state's law at all. Before assuming any wage determination expires on a fixed schedule, confirm the exact rule for the specific agency and funding source behind the project.

Contractors who bid work in more than one state feel this the hardest. A carryover rule that protects a bid in California offers no protection on a job governed by a different state's statute. Treat every state's prevailing wage system as its own separate set of deadlines, not a variation on California's calendar.

A project that mixes federal and state money adds one more wrinkle. The contractor must track two schedules at once, and pay whichever rate is higher for each craft. Skipping one schedule because the other looks stricter is a common, costly error. An auditor from either side can flag the gap on its own.

Which Situation Applies to You?

Not every reader asking this question is in the same spot in a project. The rule that matters depends on where you sit in the bidding and building timeline. Applying the wrong step can cost real money, even for a contractor acting in good faith.

The Contractor Preparing a Bid

If you are building a bid right now, the determination that matters is whichever one is in effect on the bid date. It is not the one that was current when you started your estimate weeks earlier. Pull the current determination again right before you submit, because rates can shift between the start of your estimate and the final posting.

Locking in the wrong rate sheet at the estimate stage is a common cause of an unplanned underbid. A bid built on stale numbers looks competitive on paper. Once the true, current rate applies to actual payroll, the labor line can run thousands of dollars over budget. That gap comes straight out of profit, not out of the client's payment.

A short habit fixes most of this risk. Pull the determination twice: once when the estimate starts, and again the day before the bid goes out. The second pull costs a few minutes and catches almost every rate change that would otherwise slip through unnoticed.

The Contractor Mid-Project When a New Determination Publishes

Suppose your project is already underway when a new determination comes out. Check the asterisk on the version you originally bid under. A single asterisk usually means you can keep running payroll under the original rates for the life of the job. A double asterisk means a scheduled increase is now due, even though the project has not finished.

Confirm which marking applies before you assume either outcome. Guessing wrong in either direction creates a payroll correction you will have to explain later. That explanation goes to your own accountant, or worse, to a DIR reviewer. The rate sheet itself, not your memory of the original bid terms, is the only reliable source for which rule applies.

Set a calendar reminder for every twice-a-year publish date, February 22 and August 22, on every open public works job. That single habit catches most mid-project rate changes before they ever become a payroll problem. It also gives payroll staff two weeks of lead time to adjust rates before the new effective date lands.

The Awarding Body or Subcontractor Needing an Uncovered Classification

If your craft simply is not listed in the general determination, you are in special-determination territory, not expiration territory. The awarding body needs to request a special determination at least 45 days before the bid date. A subcontractor relying on that classification should confirm the request was truly filed, rather than assuming it happened on its own.

A missing classification left unresolved past the bid date can delay the whole project, not only one trade's piece of it. It can also leave a subcontractor doing work with no official rate on record. That gap is exactly what a later DIR audit looks for. Confirm the paperwork before work starts, not after a notice arrives.

A subcontractor in this spot should ask the general contractor for written proof the special request went out. A verbal assurance is not a record DIR will accept during a later review. Get the request date and the awarding body's confirmation in writing before the first worker shows up on site.

What Happens When a Contractor Uses an Expired Rate

Using an outdated wage determination rarely surfaces right away. It shows up later, when a worker complaint, a certified payroll gap, or a routine audit triggers a Department of Industrial Relations investigation. Once records get requested, DIR compares certified payroll against timecards, payroll registers, and daily reports. It checks all of this against the determination that should have applied to each pay period.

If the investigation finds an underpayment, DIR can issue a Civil Wage and Penalty Assessment. This formal notice names the affected workers, the payroll periods involved, the wage shortage, and any penalties or liquidated damages. A contractor generally has 60 days from the date the assessment is served to file a written request for review.

Missing that 60-day window can let the assessment become final without a hearing. Liquidated damages can then add an amount equal to the unpaid wages on top of the original shortage. A modest classification error can turn into a large bill fast once that penalty stacks on top of the base underpayment.

Beyond the direct penalty, an awarding body can withhold contract funds while a dispute is pending. That includes progress payments and retention money the contractor is counting on. This creates a cash-flow problem long before the dispute is even decided.

Serious or repeated violations can lead to debarment. Debarment blocks a contractor from bidding on, winning, or performing public works for a set period. For a company that depends on public contracts, that outcome can end the business entirely.

None of these outcomes require intent. DIR does not need to prove a contractor meant to underpay anyone; a wrong rate sheet is enough to open a case. That is why the checks in this article matter, regardless of intent. An honest scheduling error and a deliberate shortcut lead to the same review and the same penalties.

Three Contractors, Three Different Compliance Lessons

The rules above play out differently depending on where a contractor sits in the process. These three cases each teach a separate lesson, not the same error told three times with a new name attached. Each one shows how the same set of dates and markings can trip up a different part of a project's timeline.

Maria's Bid Locked In a Rate That Expired Mid-Project

Maria runs estimating for a mid-size electrical contractor bidding a nine-month school renovation. She pulled the wage determination two weeks before the bid date and confirmed it carried a single asterisk. She built her labor cost projection around that one rate for the full nine months.

Six months in, a new determination published with higher rates for her classification. Because her original determination carried the carryover marking, she kept paying the original rates with no violation. Her habit of checking the marking before finalizing the bid protected the whole project.

Sam Missed the Double-Asterisk Carryover Clause

Sam's paving company won a county road contract under a determination with a double asterisk for a rate increase six months out. He assumed, wrongly, that because the underlying determination would technically expire before that increase date, the increase no longer applied to his contract. He kept paying the old rate straight through.

When DIR audited certified payroll after a worker complaint, the underpayment covered every pay period after the scheduled increase date. Sam's mistake was treating expiration and the double-asterisk date as the same event, when the marking exists specifically to survive expiration. The fix cost him a full assessment plus liquidated damages on several months of payroll. One careful read of the marking at the start of the job would have avoided all of it.

Priya's Subcontractor Skipped the Special Determination Request

Priya manages compliance for a general contractor on a project with a specialty welding classification missing from the general determination. Her subcontractor assumed the missing classification meant prevailing wage did not apply to that scope, and paid a standard market rate instead. The awarding body never filed a special determination request 45 days before the bid, so there was no official rate on file at all.

When DIR later reviewed the project, the subcontractor's assumption became the basis for a full wage audit. The lesson here differs from Maria's and Sam's. A missing classification is not a gap in coverage, and liability on subcontractor wage obligations reaches up to the general contractor too. Confirming the special determination request was truly filed would have stopped the audit before it started.

Worked Example: Calculating the Cost of an Expired-Rate Payroll Run

Suppose a contractor keeps running payroll under an old rate for ten weeks after a double-asterisk increase takes effect. The affected classification's total hourly rate, base pay plus fringe, rose by $4.50 per hour. Twelve workers in that classification each worked 40 hours a week during the ten-week gap before the error was caught.

The math per worker is simple: $4.50 an hour, times 40 hours a week, times 10 weeks. That comes to $1,800 owed to each of the twelve workers. Across the whole crew, the base wage shortage alone adds up to $21,600.

California law allows liquidated damages on top of the unpaid wages when a shortage is not corrected promptly, and in a worst case those damages can run up to the same amount as the shortage itself, pushing total exposure toward roughly $43,200. That figure does not yet include statutory penalties, investigation costs, or legal fees tied to the review process. A single missed rate change, caught ten weeks late, can turn into tens of thousands of dollars in combined exposure for one crew on one project.

Catching a rate change before the next payroll run costs almost nothing. Catching it ten weeks late, after DIR gets involved, can cost more than the profit margin on the entire job. That gap is the main reason to calendar every double-asterisk date the day a contract is signed, not the day the increase arrives.

This same math scales with crew size. A small five-person crew facing the identical ten-week gap and the same $4.50 hourly shortfall owes $9,000 in base wages before penalties. A forty-person crew on a large highway job would owe $72,000 in base wages alone under the same numbers, with liquidated damages still stacking on top. The size of the crew does not change the rule, only the size of the check the contractor eventually has to write.

None of these totals need a spreadsheet to calculate. Three numbers are enough: the hourly gap, the hours worked, and the weeks missed. A pocket calculator can spot the problem before an auditor does.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Pricing a bid off an old determination. Pulling the wage rate weeks before the bid date, then never checking it again, can leave a bid based on a determination that is no longer the one legally in effect.
• Confusing the expiration date with an automatic rate change. Assuming a project must switch to new rates the moment a determination expires ignores the carryover rule that keeps many ongoing projects on the original rate sheet.
• Missing the double-asterisk increase date. Treating a scheduled future increase as optional because the underlying determination has technically expired creates an underpayment the moment that future date arrives.
• Skipping the special determination request for a missing classification. Assuming a missing craft means prevailing wage does not apply, instead of requesting a special determination 45 days ahead of the bid date, leaves the project with no official rate on record.
• Letting the 60-day review deadline pass. Failing to file a written request for review within 60 days of a Civil Wage and Penalty Assessment can let the assessment become final, even when the facts were worth disputing.
• Assuming a subcontractor's compliance stays with the subcontractor. A general contractor that never checks subcontractor certified payroll can end up sharing responsibility for a wage shortage it did not directly cause.
• Altering certified payroll records without documenting the change. Changing a submitted record with no clear paper trail can turn an honest clerical fix into evidence of concealment during a later review.
• Ignoring a DIR notice while quietly gathering a response. Delaying any reply while researching internally does not pause the response clock, and the 60-day window keeps running the whole time.

Do's and Don'ts for Wage Determination Compliance

Do

• Recheck the determination right before the bid date, since the version priced weeks earlier may no longer be current.
• Read the asterisk marking on every determination you bid under, since it decides whether ongoing work keeps the original rate or must absorb a scheduled increase.
• Calendar every double-asterisk increase date the day you sign the contract, not the week the increase arrives.
• Request a special determination at least 45 days before the bid date whenever a needed classification is missing.
• Keep a complete project file of determinations, certified payroll, timecards, and correspondence in case DIR ever requests records.

Don't

• Don't assume an expired determination is dead for a project already underway; check the asterisk before changing any rate.
• Don't wait for a DIR notice to learn which determination applied to your project; confirm it at the time of the bid.
• Don't miss the 60-day request-for-review window on a Civil Wage and Penalty Assessment, even while still gathering documents.
• Don't treat a subcontractor's certified payroll as someone else's problem, since liability can extend to the general contractor.
• Don't alter timecards or certified payroll records without clearly documenting the correction and keeping the original.

What to Do Next

1. Pull the current general prevailing wage determination for your project's county and classification before finalizing any bid.
2. Check whether the determination carries a single or double asterisk, and calendar any scheduled increase date right away.
3. Confirm any missing classification has an official special determination request on file, rather than an assumption that none applies.
4. Reconcile certified payroll against the current determination every pay period, not only at project kickoff.
5. If a DIR notice arrives, gather your project file immediately and calendar the 60-day review deadline that same day.
6. Bring in an attorney who handles public works and prevailing wage law once a case involves several workers, liquidated damages, or possible debarment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a prevailing wage determination expire mid-project?

Not automatically. If the determination carried a single asterisk on the bid date, it generally stays in effect for the project's full life. That holds true even after the listed expiration date passes.

How often does California issue new prevailing wage determinations?

Twice a year. The director issues general determinations on February 22 and August 22, with each one taking effect 10 days after its issue date.

What is the difference between a general and a special prevailing wage determination?

Coverage. A general determination covers a craft that is uniform across an area. A special determination is requested when a classification is missing, at least 45 days before the bid date.

What happens if a contractor pays the expired rate by mistake?

An underpayment results. Workers are owed the difference between what they were paid and the current rate. DIR can add liquidated damages and penalties on top of that shortage.

How long do I have to appeal a Civil Wage and Penalty Assessment?

Sixty days. A contractor generally must request review from the Labor Commissioner within 60 days of the assessment. Miss that window, and it can become final without a hearing.

Do federal Davis-Bacon wage determinations expire the same schedule California uses?

Not the same schedule. Federal Davis-Bacon determinations are published and updated by the Department of Labor on its own timeline. That timeline does not mirror California's fixed twice-a-year calendar, so confirm the current version on the government's own contracting portal.

Is a prevailing wage determination for a work visa the same as a construction one?

No. An immigration prevailing wage determination from the National Prevailing Wage Center governs a specific visa filing. It expires under its own rules, unrelated to a construction project.

Can a general contractor be held responsible for a subcontractor's expired-rate payroll?

Potentially, yes. Liability on public works can extend up the contracting chain. A general contractor that never reviews subcontractor payroll can share the blame for a shortage the subcontractor caused.

What triggers a Department of Industrial Relations investigation into an expired determination?

A complaint or audit. A worker complaint, a certified payroll gap, an awarding-body audit, or a random check can open a review. That review decides which determination a project truly used.

Can a contractor lose public works eligibility over an expired-rate violation?

Yes, in serious cases. Repeated or willful violations can lead to debarment, which blocks a contractor from bidding on, winning, or performing public works for a set period.

Does the prevailing wage requirement change based on project size?

Yes, in limited cases. As of 2026, California's published guidance sets the general threshold at projects over $1,000. An approved labor compliance program can still exempt smaller maintenance and repair work under separate limits. Always confirm the current figures with the awarding body before bidding.

Should a contractor hire a payroll compliance specialist to track determination changes?

It depends on volume. A contractor bidding occasional public works can often track determinations by hand. One running several projects across counties usually benefits from a service that flags changes on its own.