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Am I being paid the prevailing wage?

If you work on a California public works job, you can check one week of pay against the rate DIR publishes for your trade. It takes a pay stub and about two minutes.

Uses DIR's 2026-2 rates, checked October 24, 2026. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere.

This check covers California only. Its steps (training contributions, certified payroll search, Labor Commissioner complaints) follow California law, and we haven't built the Illinois and Washington versions yet. For those states, compare your pay with the rate on the Illinois or Washington county page, which lists each state's own rules.

1 Your job

We pick the most common one. Change it if your job title is different.

Are you an apprentice?

Some rates go up on set dates. We use the rate for this week.

2 What you were paid

The straight-time rate, before taxes.

Your employer may also pay into plans for you, by the hour. Your pay stub usually doesn't show these. Your plan statements or the union or plan office can tell you the hourly amounts. Leave a box empty if you don't know.

3 Your hours that week

Hours over 8 in a day or over 40 in the week, paid at time and a half.

Leave it empty if it's 1.5 times your regular wage.

Your result

Fill in your county, trade and hourly wage, then tap Check my pay.

What you can do next

  1. Find the rate in your contract. The rate that counts is the one in the determination for your project. DIR says the rates in effect on the date the job was advertised for bids "remain in effect for the life of the project" (DIR FAQ, question 7). Ask your foreman or the awarding agency which determination is in the contract.
  2. Look at your contractor's certified payroll. Contractors on most public works jobs send weekly payroll records to the Labor Commissioner. DIR says "Payroll records are available to the public using the CPR Public Search" (Certified Payroll Reporting). You can search them here and see what your employer reported for you.
  3. Ask the plans. Call your health or pension plan, or the union hall, and ask how much your employer paid in for your hours. The Labor Commissioner's manual says an employer gets credit only for "actual payments" (Public Works Manual, section 4.2).
  4. File a complaint with the Labor Commissioner. Fill out the Worker Complaint Form, sign it and send it in with copies of your pay stubs. DIR has the form in English and Spanish, and you can ask for a phone interpreter at 833-526-4636. DIR says "Your employer cannot fire, demote, suspend or discipline you for answering any questions" (How to file a public works complaint).

How prevailing wage pay is calculated

A prevailing wage rate has two parts. One is the basic hourly rate, your wage. The other is employer payments into plans for health, pension, vacation and so on. Your employer can pay part of the plan money to you as wages instead, as long as your wage isn't below the basic hourly rate and wages plus plan payments add up to the total (Public Works Manual, sections 4.2.1 and 4.2.2). So we add your wage and the plan payments you entered and compare that to the total.

We take the training amount out of the published total before comparing. Training money goes to the California Apprenticeship Council or an apprenticeship program, and DIR says training funds "cannot be paid to the workers unless it is a non-apprenticeable craft" (DAS public works page). You won't see it on your stub, and that is normal.

Plan payments are owed on every hour, overtime included (Public Works Manual, section 4.2.3). For overtime, DIR says hours over 8 in a day and 40 in a week are paid at "not less than one-and-one-half times the basic rate of pay," and that each determination sets the exact overtime rates (DIR FAQ, question 14). We use the daily overtime and double-time rates from your classification. Saturday, Sunday and holiday rates can be higher, so check the determination if you worked those days.

Apprentices are paid from separate apprentice wage sheets that DIR publishes by craft, county and program (DIR apprentice wage sheets), so this check doesn't compare apprentice pay.

Only the Labor Commissioner can decide whether you were underpaid. This page compares numbers and isn't legal advice.