{
  "slug": "prevailing-wage-burden",
  "title": "Prevailing Wage Burden Calculator",
  "heading": "Prevailing Wage Labor Burden Calculator",
  "category": "financial",
  "url": "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/prevailing-wage-burden",
  "summary": "Compute true hourly cost on Davis-Bacon and state prevailing wage jobs.",
  "description": "Prevailing wage work under Davis-Bacon and state equivalents requires paying the published wage determination rate plus a fringe benefit rate that can be satisfied either through actual bona fide benefits (health insurance, retirement contributions) or paid directly in cash if the contractor doesn't offer qualifying benefits. On top of base wage and fringe, standard payroll burden still applies: FICA, FUTA/SUTA, workers' comp, and general liability insurance, all calculated on the wage portion (fringe paid as benefits is typically excluded from these burden calculations, while fringe paid as cash is usually not). This calculator separates base wage and fringe, applies standard burden rates to the wage-based components, and returns your true fully-loaded hourly cost — critical because many contractors accidentally burden the full wage+fringe rate as if it were all cash wage, overstating true cost by a meaningful margin on prevailing wage bids.",
  "formula": "Loaded rate = Base wage + Fringe + (Base wage × Burden%). Fringe paid as cash also incurs FICA if not routed through a qualifying benefit plan.",
  "dateModified": "2026-09-30",
  "run_url": "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/api/public/calc?tool=prevailing-wage-burden",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "baseWage",
      "label": "Base wage rate",
      "kind": "number",
      "hint": null,
      "default": 32,
      "unit": "$/hr",
      "min": 0,
      "max": null
    },
    {
      "id": "fringeRate",
      "label": "Fringe benefit rate",
      "kind": "number",
      "hint": null,
      "default": 14,
      "unit": "$/hr",
      "min": 0,
      "max": null
    },
    {
      "id": "fringeAsCash",
      "label": "Fringe paid as",
      "kind": "select",
      "hint": null,
      "default": "benefits",
      "options": [
        {
          "value": "benefits",
          "label": "Bona fide benefits"
        },
        {
          "value": "cash",
          "label": "Cash (subject to burden)"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "burdenPct",
      "label": "Payroll burden rate",
      "kind": "number",
      "hint": null,
      "default": 32,
      "unit": "%",
      "min": 0,
      "max": 60
    }
  ],
  "outputs": [
    {
      "id": "loadedRate",
      "label": "Fully loaded hourly rate",
      "format": "currency",
      "hint": null,
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "id": "burdenAmount",
      "label": "Burden cost per hour",
      "format": "currency",
      "hint": null,
      "primary": false
    },
    {
      "id": "dailyCost",
      "label": "Loaded cost per 8-hr day",
      "format": "currency",
      "hint": null,
      "primary": false
    },
    {
      "id": "burdenBase",
      "label": "Amount burden is calculated on",
      "format": "currency",
      "hint": null,
      "primary": false
    }
  ],
  "worked_example": {
    "inputs": [
      "Base wage rate: 32 $/hr",
      "Fringe benefit rate: 14 $/hr",
      "Fringe paid as: Bona fide benefits",
      "Payroll burden rate: 32 %"
    ],
    "outputs": [
      "Fully loaded hourly rate: $56.24",
      "Burden cost per hour: $10.24",
      "Loaded cost per 8-hr day: $449.92",
      "Amount burden is calculated on: $32.00"
    ]
  },
  "how_to": {
    "title": "How to use this",
    "steps": [
      "Enter base wage rate ($/hr).",
      "Enter fringe benefit rate ($/hr).",
      "Enter fringe paid as.",
      "Enter payroll burden rate (%).",
      "Read your fully loaded hourly rate on the right — it updates as you type.",
      "Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone."
    ]
  },
  "scenarios": [
    {
      "name": "Conservative",
      "description": "Lower-end numbers — what if things land soft?",
      "values": {
        "baseWage": 19.2,
        "fringeRate": 8.4,
        "fringeAsCash": "benefits",
        "burdenPct": 19
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Typical",
      "description": "Defaults — the most common real-world setup.",
      "values": {
        "baseWage": 32,
        "fringeRate": 14,
        "fringeAsCash": "benefits",
        "burdenPct": 32
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Ambitious",
      "description": "Higher-end numbers — what if things really pop?",
      "values": {
        "baseWage": 51.2,
        "fringeRate": 22.400000000000002,
        "fringeAsCash": "benefits",
        "burdenPct": 51
      }
    }
  ],
  "limitations": [
    "Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.",
    "Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.",
    "This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant."
  ],
  "faq": [
    {
      "q": "Why does it matter whether fringe is paid as benefits versus cash?",
      "a": "Fringe routed through a bona fide plan (health insurance, an approved retirement plan) is generally exempt from FICA, FUTA, and workers' comp calculations, while fringe paid directly to the worker as cash wages is treated like regular wage and incurs the full payroll burden stack. Misclassifying this can either understate your true cost or, worse, create a payroll tax compliance problem on a certified payroll job."
    },
    {
      "q": "What burden rate is typical on prevailing wage construction work?",
      "a": "Combined FICA (7.65%), FUTA/SUTA (varies by state and experience rating, often 1-6%), workers' comp (highly trade-dependent, from under 5% for office/light trades to 20%+ for roofing or structural steel), and general liability commonly total 25-40% of wage-based cost. Always use your actual experience-modified workers' comp rate for the specific trade classification, not a company-wide average."
    },
    {
      "q": "Does the wage determination rate ever change mid-project?",
      "a": "Davis-Bacon wage determinations are generally locked in as of the bid opening or contract award date for the life of the contract on most federal contracts, but multi-year contracts and some state prevailing wage schemes require annual updates to the applicable rate. Check your specific contract's wage determination effective-date language before assuming a multi-year rate is frozen."
    },
    {
      "q": "How does certified payroll reporting affect estimating accuracy?",
      "a": "Certified payroll (WH-347 on federal jobs) requires reporting actual hours and rates by classification, which creates a hard audit trail — if your bid used a blended average trade rate but the wage determination has multiple classifications at different rates, you can end up underbid on the higher-classified work once you're forced to actually pay and report the correct rate per worker."
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/labor-burden-rate",
    "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/crew-productivity-per-day",
    "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/general-conditions-percentage"
  ],
  "license": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "citation": "RevenueLab — Prevailing Wage Burden Calculator (https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/prevailing-wage-burden)"
}