Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage

The short version

Pennsylvania has a publicly searchable prevailing wage rate database maintained by the PA Department of Labor & Industry, Bureau of Labor Law Compliance (BLLC). Unlike Delaware's per-project request model, PA lets contractors and awarding agencies look up rates directly by craft, county, and project type without submitting a form first. Rates are issued under the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act.

Public works in Pennsylvania that meet the statutory threshold require paying the prevailing wage rate published by L&I for the relevant craft and locality. The awarding agency has specific duties under the Act — it is required to request rates before bid, include them in contract documents, and file specific forms with L&I.

Where to get the rates for your project

Primary source: Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, Bureau of Labor Law Compliance — the canonical hub page is pa.gov · DLI · Prevailing Wage.

From that page, the working documents you will need:

• Request or Search Prevailing Wage Rates — the live rate-lookup tool. Start here for any specific rate question.
• Prevailing Wage Awarding Agency Form — for public bodies letting a contract that triggers the Act.
• Wage Rate Submittal Form — for rate determinations or updates.
• Certified Payroll Form — PA's equivalent of federal WH-347; required weekly on covered projects.

The primary-source library

Every document below is linked from the PA DLI prevailing wage hub above. Start from that page — the authoritative file paths are maintained by L&I and change over time; linking deep from third-party sites (including ours) risks sending you to stale copies.

• Prevailing Wage Act — the Act of August 15, 1961 (P.L. 987, No. 442), as amended. The governing statute.
• Prevailing Wage Act Regulations — L&I's implementing regulations under the Act.
• Know Your Workplace Rights: Prevailing Wage Act — worker-facing summary; useful for understanding coverage in plain language.
• Prevailing Wage Poster — the required jobsite poster for covered projects.
• File a Prevailing Wage Complaint — L&I's intake channel for underpayment or misclassification disputes.

Which projects trigger Pennsylvania prevailing wage?

PA prevailing wage applies to public works contracts above the statutory threshold defined in the Prevailing Wage Act. Coverage extends to state and political-subdivision construction, alteration, and repair work. The specific current threshold and the definition of "public work" under the Act should be verified directly against the current statute and regulations linked above — thresholds have been amended over time and are subject to further legislative change. Do not rely on a general summary (including this one) for the coverage determination on a specific bid.

How Pennsylvania prevailing wage differs from federal Davis-Bacon

• Publication model. Davis-Bacon rates are published on sam.gov by county and construction type. PA rates are published in L&I's searchable rate database — different portal, different classification system, not interchangeable.
• Jurisdiction trigger. Davis-Bacon follows federal funding and federal thresholds. PA prevailing wage follows PA state funding and PA's own threshold under the Act. A project may be covered by one, the other, both, or neither.
• Classification schema. PA's craft classifications overlap with Davis-Bacon categories but are not identical. Using Davis-Bacon classifications on a PA-only project is a compliance failure.
• Certified payroll form. Federal uses WH-347. PA uses its own Certified Payroll Form linked from the L&I hub. Submit the form the project's funding source requires, not a federal form substituted for a state one.
• Awarding agency duties. PA's Act imposes specific affirmative duties on the public body letting the contract — requesting rates before bid, including them in contract documents, filing forms with L&I. Federal Davis-Bacon has an analogous but different process.

How Pennsylvania differs from Delaware

• Rate access. PA has a live searchable database. Delaware issues rates per-project via request form to DE DOL. Contractors working across the state line should not assume similar workflows.
• Classification systems. PA and DE publish distinct craft classifications. A PA "Building Common Journeyperson Laborer" is not necessarily the same classification as DE's corresponding laborer category.
• Awarding agency role. PA places more specific affirmative duties on the awarding agency than DE's system; check each state's requirements separately.
• For a project straddling both states, file both: request DE rates from DE DOL per project, and look up PA rates from L&I for the PA portion.

See also: Delaware Prevailing Wage Navigator.

The practical workflow (PA)

1. Confirm your project triggers the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act. Check the Act and regulations for the current threshold and scope.
2. If you are the awarding agency, submit the Prevailing Wage Awarding Agency Form to L&I per the Act's process. Include the rate information in bid documents.
3. If you are a contractor, look up the applicable rates for the project's craft and locality using the Request or Search Prevailing Wage Rates tool on the L&I hub.
4. Post the Prevailing Wage Poster on the jobsite.
5. Pay the published rates and file the Certified Payroll Form on the schedule L&I requires. Keep records per the retention period in the regulations.
6. If a dispute arises (misclassification, underpayment, or awarding-agency error), use the File a Prevailing Wage Complaint channel from the same L&I hub.

When to get direct help

If the Act is ambiguous for your specific project, or if a classification appears to be missing or incorrect in the rate database, contact the PA Bureau of Labor Law Compliance directly. The current contact information is published on the L&I prevailing wage hub linked above.

Why we built this

The Hive builds tools for working construction and engineering professionals across the Delaware Valley. Pennsylvania and Delaware sit on opposite sides of the Act's logic — a contractor who knows PA cold often gets Delaware wrong, and vice versa, because the rate-access mechanisms are different. This page makes the primary sources easier to find and the workflow easier to understand. It does not replace the Prevailing Wage Act, and it does not issue rates. Rates come from L&I's database for your craft, county, and project type.

If something is missing that a PA public-works contractor would need, email us and we'll add it.