Statement of Compliance for Certified Payroll: What It Is (+ Free Template)

The Statement of Compliance is the part of certified payroll that turns a spreadsheet of hours into a sworn legal statement. It is short — usually one page — but it carries the weight of the whole report. When you sign it, you are personally certifying, under penalty of perjury, that everyone on the job got paid at least the required prevailing wage plus fringe for their classification. Get it wrong, or leave it unsigned, and the awarding body kicks the whole payroll back. Here is exactly what it certifies, who is allowed to sign it, where it fits in your weekly filing, the fields on the form, and the mistakes that get it rejected.

What the statement of compliance certifies

The Statement of Compliance is a signed certification that accompanies your weekly payroll. By signing it you are stating, under penalty of perjury, that:

• The payroll is correct and complete for the pay period — every worker on the project, every hour, every dollar.
• Each worker was paid no less than the required rate — the prevailing wage base plus fringe — for the classification of work they actually performed.
• No improper deductions were taken and no kickbacks or rebates were collected from workers' wages. This is the Anti-Kickback (Copeland Act) piece on federal jobs.
• Fringe benefits were paid either into approved (bona fide) plans, in cash added to the hourly rate, or a combination — and you indicate which.
• Apprentices, if any, were properly registered and paid the correct apprentice rate for their level.

That last word — certifies — is the whole point. The payroll grid is data. The statement is your signature on that data being true. It is what gives an auditor or the U.S. Department of Labor something enforceable to hold you to.

Who is authorized to sign it

Not just anyone in the office can sign. The statement must be signed by the contractor, subcontractor, or an authorized officer or employee who supervises the payment of wages — someone with the authority and the knowledge to certify the numbers are true. In practice that is an owner, a partner, a corporate officer, or a payroll/finance manager who has been formally designated.

A few rules worth nailing down:

• The signer must have firsthand authority over payroll. A field foreman who never sees the wage math is not the right person.
• It must be a real, current signature every week. A photocopied or stamped signature from a prior period is a common rejection reason.
• If you delegate signing authority, document it. Some awarding bodies want a letter on file naming who is authorized to certify payroll on your behalf.
• Subcontractors sign their own. The general can collect and forward your payroll, but you certify your own workers — the GC does not certify for you.

Treat the signature seriously. It is made under penalty of perjury, and on federal work a false certification can carry both civil and criminal exposure, not just a kicked-back form.

Where it fits in your weekly certified-payroll submission

The Statement of Compliance is the back half of certified payroll. On the federal WH-347, page 1 is the payroll grid (workers, classifications, hours, rates, gross, deductions, net) and page 2 is the Statement of Compliance. You submit both, every week, for every week you performed work on the project.

The cadence:

• Weekly. One certified payroll per project per week.
• Due within 7 days after the regular pay date for that period (federal Davis-Bacon timing).
• Numbered sequentially, with the final report marked "Final."
• The statement is attached to — and certifies — that specific week's grid. A statement with no payroll, or a payroll with no statement, is incomplete.

In California, certified payroll for registered public works is reported to the DIR, most of it through the online eCPR portal, in addition to the awarding body. The eCPR flow folds the certification into the electronic submission, but the substance is the same: you are still certifying, under penalty of perjury, that the wages were paid correctly. If you ever submitted apprenticeship paperwork like the DAS-140 and DAS-142, the apprentices on this payroll need to line up with that.

What's on the form (use this as your template)

There is no magic file to download — the Statement of Compliance is a standard structure, and TradePRO generates it for you, pre-filled from your payroll data. Here is the full structure so you know exactly what every field is and can check your own before you sign:

Header / identification

• Date of the certification.
• Name of signatory and title (the authorized person, see above).
• Contractor or subcontractor name and the building/work location.
• Payroll period — the week-ending date this statement covers.
• Payroll number — matching the grid it certifies.

The certification statements (you are attesting to all of these)

• That the attached payroll is correct and complete.
• That the wage rates paid are not less than the applicable rates in the wage determination for each classification.
• That no deductions have been made other than those permitted by law, and no rebates or kickbacks were collected.
• That apprentices are registered in an approved program.

Fringe benefits section — 4(a) / 4(b)

This is the part people skip and then fail an audit over. You pick how you satisfied the fringe portion of the prevailing wage:

• Box 4(a) — Where fringe benefits are paid to approved plans, funds, or programs: you contributed the fringe to bona fide benefit plans (health, pension, vacation, approved training).
• Box 4(b) — Where fringe benefits are paid in cash: you paid the fringe as cash added to the hourly rate.
• Exceptions: a space to list any worker or class where the standard treatment does not apply, and to explain it.

You can use a combination of 4(a) and 4(b) across different benefits — just make sure the math adds up to at least the full fringe in the determination. For the full breakdown of how fringes work, see our fringe benefit statement guide.

Signature block

• Signature of the authorized person — wet or valid electronic, current to this week.
• Name and title, printed.

Common mistakes that get it rejected

• Unsigned, or signed by the wrong person. No authorized signature means automatic rejection. A foreman or clerk without payroll authority does not count.
• Neither 4(a) nor 4(b) checked. If you do not indicate how you paid fringe, the reviewer cannot confirm the prevailing wage was met, and the payroll bounces.
• Fringe box does not match the grid. You check 4(b) cash but the rate column does not include the cash fringe — the numbers contradict each other.
• Stale or copied signature. Reusing last week's signed page. The certification has to be made fresh for the period it covers.
• Statement and grid do not match. Different payroll number, different week-ending date, or a worker on the grid not covered by the certification.
• Missing the "no work performed" certification. Some awarding bodies want a statement even for weeks with no work — leaving a gap in the sequence triggers a follow-up.
• Exceptions not explained. If a worker's situation is unusual and you leave the exceptions field blank, expect questions.

The pattern in all of these is the same: the Statement of Compliance is a certification, and a certification has to be internally consistent, current, and signed by someone who can stand behind it. If those three things are true, you are clean.

Run it in TradePRO

TradePRO generates the Statement of Compliance from your payroll data — fringe boxes filled, payroll number and week-ending date matched to the grid, ready for an authorized signer — alongside the rest of your prevailing-wage paperwork, tracked per project. Try it free on your next public works job →

This article is general information for contractors, not legal advice. Prevailing-wage rules and forms change — confirm current requirements with the U.S. Department of Labor and the California DIR before relying on this.