DIR certified payroll: eCPR, deadlines and penalties

DIR's FAQ says: "All contractors and subcontractors working on public works projects (except for those listed below) must submit electronic certified payroll records to the Labor Commissioner." Each company files for its own workers. A prime doesn't file for its subs, and sending payroll to a union, the prime, the awarding body or a labor compliance program "does not fulfill the requirement" (DIR FAQ).

Two things have to exist before you can file. The awarding body has to register the project with DIR, which gives it a DIR Project ID, and your company has to hold an active public works contractor registration to request to join the project. If the project isn't in the system, DIR tells contractors to ask the awarding body to register it and, failing that, to write to publicworks@dir.ca.gov. Our guide to public works coverage and registration covers both.

The fields track Labor Code 1776(a), which requires payroll records showing each worker's "name, address, social security number, work classification, straight time and overtime hours worked each day and week, and the actual per diem wages paid." Each record is signed under penalty of perjury, stating that the information is true and that the employer complied with sections 1771 (prevailing wages), 1811 and 1815 (hours and overtime) for the work on that project (LC 1776).

The deductions and contributions block is where fringe benefits show up. A worker's health and welfare, pension and training lines should add up, with the cash wage, to the total hourly rate for each hour type in the determination. The fringe benefits guide explains how that total can be split, and the rate sheet tool pulls the rate for each classification on the job.

Mistakes are fixed by adding records. Submitted records can't be edited or deleted; a new record for the same pay period takes precedence over the original, and you only resubmit the employees who change. If you filed a week in which no work happened, a Statement of Non-Performance for that week takes precedence over the record filed in error. The original stays on file with its amendments (FAQ). DIR's Support Center has the step-by-step guides.

Owner-operators who don't pay themselves an hourly wage still report their own hours. DIR's FAQ says to report the classification, the rate, the hours and the estimated amount paid for the labor, worked out by subtracting materials, overhead and payments to others from the contract price.

DIR's page says payroll records "are available to the public using the CPR Public Search," with confidential information removed (Certified Payroll Reporting). According to the FAQ, the public version is fully redacted: it removes employee names, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers, plus the contractor's FEIN or SSN and email address. A contractor can export an unredacted PDF of its own records.

Requests for copies follow a separate route. Under 1776(b)(3) the public can ask for certified copies through the awarding body or DLSE, and section 1776(e) requires names, addresses and Social Security numbers to be blacked out before release, while the contractor's own name and address stay visible. Taft-Hartley trust funds and joint labor-management committees get less redacted copies, and a separate eCPR database open only to them was required by July 1, 2024 (LC 1771.4(e)).

The payroll record is also the evidence in an underpayment case. Section 1775(b) lets a prime avoid penalties for a subcontractor's underpayment only if, among other steps, it monitored the sub "by periodic review of the certified payroll records of the subcontractor." That review is one of the four conditions the section lists.

Davis-Bacon jobs use a different system: weekly certified payrolls to the federal agency or the grant recipient, with optional form WH-347 (29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)). On a federally funded job run by a California agency, a contractor files both, because DIR doesn't accept submissions elsewhere in place of eCPR. See Davis-Bacon vs California prevailing wage.

A worker who suspects a record shows the wrong rate can run the stub through the pay check tool and look up the rate for their trade and county from California prevailing wage rates.