California laborer prevailing wage by group

In the Southern California determination the groups climb: Group 1 is the lowest at $78.65 and Group 5 the highest at $81.65, $3.00 apart. Flaggers, fire watchers and general cleanup laborers are in Group 1; blasters, welders and toxic waste removal are in Group 5.

In Northern California, Groups 1 to 3 sit within 25 cents of each other ($72.71 to $72.96 in Area 1), and Group 4 drops to $66.40. Group 4 is the final cleanup group: "all final cleanup of debris, grounds and buildings near the completion of the project," new-construction window washing, and brick and material cleaners on the job site. The higher-paid specialties sit in lettered subgroups instead. Group 1 (A) covers blasting and powder work, Group 1 (C) burning and welding, Group 1 (E) bell-hole footings and shafts, and Group 6 structural nozzlemen, the highest-paid group at $73.92.

A payroll admin who moves a crew from Sacramento to Riverside can't carry the group number across. A Group 1 flagger in the south would be Group 3 in the north, and a northern Group 1 pipelayer is Group 4 in the south.

Group 7 is entry-level landscape work, paid in three six-month stages: $60.59, $64.63, $68.67 in Area 1. Group 1 (B), sewer cleaners, is paid at Group 1 rates plus a daily premium: $4.00 a day for work with raw sewage in small-diameter sewers and $5.00 a day inside recently active large-diameter sewers and manholes.

Two footnotes change the hourly figure. Footnote b adds zone pay of $3.00 an hour, factored at the overtime multiple, "for work performed outside the free zone described by the boundaries along township and range lines"; the free-zone map is in the determination's travel and subsistence provision. Group 1 (D) trackmen get $0.25 an hour above their regular rate (footnote a). Special single and second shifts have their own table in the same PDF, determination NC-23-102-1-2026-2A, where Group 1 in Area 1 is $75.96.

The Northern California laborer determination has two areas. Area 1 is Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin. Area 2 is the other 40 counties it covers, including Sacramento, Fresno, San Joaquin and 37 more. The areas differ by $1.00 of base wage in every group; employer payments are the same $32.31 in both ($12.00 health and welfare, $15.46 pension, $4.00 vacation and holiday, $0.52 training, $0.33 other).

This map is the laborers' own. Napa, Solano and Sonoma are Bay Area 1 counties for carpenters but Area 2 for laborers, so check the area inside the file for the trade you are paying. The carpenter guide shows the carpenter areas.

San Diego splits by type of work. Building construction (SD-23-102-4) pays $76.87 for Group 1; engineering construction (SD-23-102-3) pays $78.65, the same as Southern California. Both 2026-2 San Diego files say they apply to projects advertised for bids on or after October 9, 2026; DIR reissued both on September 29, 2026.

Laborer determinations print one overtime rate for weekdays and Saturdays and a second for Sundays and holidays. In Northern California, footnote d says the daily/Saturday rate "applies to the first 4 daily overtime hours worked on Monday through Friday and the first 12 hours worked on Saturday; all other time is paid at the Sunday and holiday overtime hourly rate." Southern California's footnote c switches to double time for "any hours worked over 12 hours in a single workday." Its footnote d allows a Saturday at straight time when the job "is shut down during work week due to inclement weather or similar Act of God, or a situation beyond the employer's control."

The overtime figures follow the same rule as other crafts: the multiplier applies to the base wage and the employer payments are added on top, so Northern California's $93.29 is 1.5 × $40.65 plus $32.31.

The group lists are long but not complete, and some titles carry conditions in parentheses that decide the group, such as Southern California's "Driller, Jackhammer, 2 1/2 ft. drill steel or longer" in Group 3. DIR publishes an advisory scope of work for each determination, linked from the determinations menu beside the holiday and travel documents, which describes the work the craft covers. When the scope still leaves the answer open, DIR's Research Unit takes questions at (415) 703-4774, the number printed on the laborer determinations.

A laborer who flags traffic in the morning and runs a compactor in the afternoon in Southern California moves from Group 1 to Group 3, $1.10 an hour apart; in Northern California the same two tasks are Group 3 and Group 1, $0.25 apart.

Southern California laborers have out-earned Northern California's Area 1 in every period since 2024-2, and the gap widened from $4.03 to $5.69. Over the two years Southern California rose $6.96 and Northern California $5.30. The figures in each table cell link to the DIR file they came from.

All three laborer determinations carry a double asterisk, so their next increases are fixed and must be paid on work after each date (FAQ Q8).

DIR's increase files say how each raise may be split. The Northern California file, NC-023-102-1-Pre, allocates the June 28, 2027 increase as "$3.60 to wages and/or employer payments and $0.02 to Other," which fixes the increase to the total and leaves open how much of it goes to the base wage.