Form WH-347, box by box

What the form is

WH-347 is the US Department of Labor’s optional form for the weekly payroll a contractor must submit on Davis-Bacon covered work, together with the Statement of Compliance on its reverse. It is optional in the sense that any format carrying the same information is acceptable — and mandatory in practice, because most agencies simply require the form.

Use the current edition. The copy on the Department of Labor’s WH-347 page carries OMB Control No. 1235-0008 with an expiration date of 01/31/2028 (checked 11 September 2026). Download it from dol.gov for each new project rather than reusing a saved copy: the OMB line changes when the form is re-approved, and an agency reviewer reads that line before anything else on the page.

The header

Contractor or subcontractor name and address, payroll number, week ending date, project and location, and the project or contract number. Two of these cause more trouble than the rest of the form combined.

Payroll number

Consecutive, starting at 1, with the last one marked FINAL. A gap in the sequence is the first thing a reviewer looks for, and a week with no work still needs a payroll — a non-performance payroll — or the sequence breaks.

Project and contract number

Must match the awarding agency’s records exactly. A payroll filed against the wrong project number is not filed.

Column by column

Name and identifying number

The employee’s name and an identifying number. Do not put a full social security number on a submitted payroll — the last four digits is the accepted practice, and putting the whole number on a document that travels is a data protection problem the form does not require you to create.

Withholding exemptions

Optional on the current form. Leaving it blank is not a defect.

Work classification

The classification for the work actually performed, from the wage determination attached to the contract. This is where most underpayment findings come from: a worker with one job title who spent Tuesday doing another classification’s work must be paid at that classification for Tuesday. Split-classification days are normal on a site and have to be shown as such.

Day and date, hours worked

Daily hours, split between straight time and overtime, with the totals across. The daily detail is not optional — a weekly total with no daily breakdown is a rejection on most systems.

Rate of pay

The basic hourly rate, plus the fringe rate where fringes are paid in cash. The prevailing wage is a base rate plus a fringe rate, and how the fringe is discharged has to be visible.

Gross amount earned

Where an employee worked on more than one project that week, show the project gross over the week gross — the reviewer needs to see both, and a single figure looks like the employee worked nowhere else.

Deductions

Itemised. Only deductions permitted by regulation or authorized in writing by the employee. An unexplained "other" line will be queried and can invalidate the submission.

Net wages paid

Must reconcile to gross minus the itemised deductions. It sounds obvious and it is a common arithmetic rejection.

The Statement of Compliance

Signed under penalty of law by somebody who can attest to the payroll. It states that the payroll is correct and complete, that every laborer was paid the full weekly wages earned without rebate, and that the classifications reflect the work performed. Nobody signs this on behalf of a contractor without authority to do so.

Section 4 of the statement carries the fringe benefit election: paid into approved plans, paid in cash, or a combination with an explanation. Leaving it blank is, in our experience, one of the four commonest rejections.

The four boxes that cause most rejections

Classification not matching the work performed. Overtime computed on the total rate rather than on the basic rate. Fringe election left blank on the Statement of Compliance. And a payroll number out of sequence, usually because a non-performance week was skipped.

Corrections

An error is fixed with an amended payroll referencing the original number and stating what changed. Quietly resubmitting a different version of week four is what turns a mistake into a finding.

Records are kept three years after the work is completed — payrolls, time records, classifications and the evidence behind any fringe benefit claimed.