Davis-Bacon
The requirement to pay locally prevailing wages on federally funded construction, with certified payroll submitted weekly. It raises the cost of construction work and adds an administrative burden that has to be budgeted before the application, not after.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Prevailing wage requirements · Davis-Bacon and Related Acts
In detail
The wage determination is published per locality and per trade, and it is the published rate that governs rather than what an organisation normally pays. On a project budgeted at market rates the gap can be large enough to change feasibility.
Certified payroll is a weekly obligation for every contractor and subcontractor on the project, and enforcement is real.
Against the amount fields
The amount columns tell you what a funder will give. Prevailing wage requirements change what the work costs. A construction award that looked adequate at market rates can be inadequate at determination rates, and no arithmetic on `amount_max` will reveal that — which is why the notice, linked on every record, is the document that decides feasibility.
How GrantTrove stores it
- `amount_note` keeps the source’s own qualifying wording beside a figure, so a caveat published with an amount stays attached to it.
- We do not extract wage or labour requirements. They are stated in prose, they are locality-specific, and a flag populated on a minority of records would read as an absence of requirement on the rest.
Common questions
Does it apply to all federal construction funding?
To most, through the Act or one of the related Acts. The notice states whether it applies.
Who submits certified payroll?
Every contractor and subcontractor on the project, weekly.
Do you show which programmes require it?
No. It is prose in the notice, which every record links.