Mid-Atlantic Prevailing Wage Compared
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia each run their own state prevailing wage regime on top of federal Davis-Bacon. Every one works differently. This page is a side-by-side reference for contractors, subcontractors, and awarding bodies whose projects cross state lines — which is most of them, in the Delaware Valley.
Jump to a specific state's navigator
The short version — why this page exists
A contractor whose crew works Wilmington on Monday, Philadelphia on Wednesday, and Camden on Friday is dealing with three distinct prevailing wage regimes in one week. The forms are different. The rate-access models are different. Even the governing statutes live in different titles. Miss one, and a bid is disqualified or a payroll filing is rejected.
The five states covered here — DE, PA, NJ, MD, VA — form the Mid-Atlantic working footprint for most Delaware Valley firms. The comparison below is the short-answer reference; each state's detail page (linked above) is the deep primary-source navigator.
Side-by-side comparison
| Dimension | Delaware | Pennsylvania | New Jersey | Maryland | Virginia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governing statute | DE Prevailing Wage Regulations (Title 29) | PA Prevailing Wage Act of 1961 | N.J.S.A. 34:11-56.25 et seq. | MD State Finance & Procurement Article, Title 17, Subtitle 2 | Va. Code § 2.2-4321.3 (2020) |
| Enforcement body | DE DOL, Office of Construction Enforcement | PA DLI, Bureau of Labor Law Compliance | NJ DOL, Division of Wage and Hour Compliance | MD Dept of Labor, Prevailing Wage Unit | VA DOLI, Labor and Employment Law Division |
| Rate-access model | Per-project: submit request form; DE issues rates for your project | Public searchable database on pa.gov | Rates published through NJ DOL prevailing-rates portal | Unified Prevailing Wage Portal (rates + registration + payroll + complaints) | DOLI publishes determinations by locality + craft |
| Certified payroll system | DE-specific form | PA Certified Payroll Form | NJ Wage Hub — required digital system | Submit through MD Prevailing Wage Portal | DOLI Pay Scale Certification for Public Works Projects |
| Pre-bid registration required? | No (but contractor registration exists separately) | No | No | Yes — contractor/subcontractor must register before bidding | No |
| Distinctive step out-of-state contractors miss | Assuming DE publishes rates like Davis-Bacon — it doesn't; submit the request form first | Using Davis-Bacon classifications instead of PA's schema | Skipping NJ Wage Hub registration before first filing | Skipping the mandatory pre-bid contractor registration | Assuming VA has no state PW (true pre-2020, wrong now) |
| Complaint / dispute channel | Contact DE DOL Office of Construction Enforcement directly | File a Prevailing Wage Complaint (L&I) | File a Wage Complaint (NJ DOL) | Prevailing Wage Complaint Form (Portal) | Claim for Unpaid Wages / Claim for Retaliation (DOLI) |
Key differences that trip contractors
- Delaware is per-project. DE doesn't publish a static table you can look up in advance — you submit a Certified Prevailing Wage Rates Request Form with your project particulars, and DE DOL returns the applicable rates. Plan for that turnaround in your bid timeline.
- Maryland requires pre-bid registration. Don't discover this during bid submission. Register contractor/subcontractor through the MD Prevailing Wage Portal before you commit to a proposal.
- NJ Wage Hub is mandatory for covered-project payroll. Paper certified payroll is not accepted for covered NJ work. Register contractors and workers in the Hub before the first certified payroll cycle.
- Virginia's law is new. Any workflow built before May 1, 2021 that assumed "Virginia has no state prevailing wage" is now incomplete. Check § 2.2-4321.3 coverage even if your firm has worked VA public projects for decades.
- Classification schemas don't match Davis-Bacon. Each of the five states publishes its own craft classifications. Mapping Davis-Bacon categories 1:1 is a compliance failure. Use each state's classification list.
Workflow for projects that span states
- Identify every state in which work will be performed — not just where the contract is signed.
- For each state in scope, check the governing statute (table above) for coverage and threshold on your specific project.
- Pre-bid: if MD is in scope, register contractors and subcontractors in the MD Portal before submitting a bid.
- Request / look up rates per state using that state's mechanism (DE: request form; PA: database; NJ: portal; MD: Portal; VA: DOLI determinations).
- Include each state's published rate in the contract documents for work performed in that state.
- File certified payroll separately in each state's required system on that state's required schedule.
- Maintain records per each state's retention period (they vary).
- If a complaint or dispute arises, route to the correct enforcement body per the table above — federal Davis-Bacon goes to USDOL Wage and Hour, not to any state body.
Federal Davis-Bacon sits on top of all of this
Federal Davis-Bacon continues to apply on federally-funded work in any of these five states. Davis-Bacon rates live at sam.gov, with federal WH-347 certified payroll. A project with both state and federal money may have to follow both regimes simultaneously — usually by paying whichever rate is higher for each classification. Confirm the funding source upstream; a surprise federal funding tranche can pull an otherwise state-only project into Davis-Bacon territory.
When to get help
For any state-specific ambiguity on coverage, classification, or workflow, contact that state's enforcement body directly. Each state's detail page (linked at the top of this page) includes the current contact channel. For multi-state projects where the regimes interact in a non-obvious way — federal + state + locality funding mixed, or a classification that exists in one state and not another — the right first call is usually the state with the most restrictive coverage.
Why we built this
The Hive builds tools for working construction and engineering professionals across the Delaware Valley. Every Mid-Atlantic firm we've talked to has a prevailing wage story about the exact thing that tripped them — the MD registration they didn't know about, the DE rate request that added two weeks, the NJ Wage Hub account they discovered mid-project. This page collects the pattern so the next firm crossing a state line has a one-page reference before they start, not after they get a stop-work notice.
Every detail on this page is sourced from the state enforcement bodies' own publications — the five detail pages linked at the top walk to the primary source for each claim. We do not issue rates or classify trades. That is the enforcement bodies' job.
If we're missing something a multi-state contractor would need, email us and we'll add it.