How to Complete and Submit the California DIR Certified Payroll Form A-1-131

The California DIR certified payroll form, A-1-131, is the state’s standard template for reporting wages paid to every worker on a public works project, and you submit it to the Labor Commissioner through the Department of Industrial Relations’ eCPR system. You complete one for each pay period, listing worker identification, classification, daily hours, wage rates, fringe benefits, and deductions so the state can verify prevailing wage compliance.¹ Getting it right depends almost entirely on what you do before you type the first number: pulling the correct wage determination.

Look Up the Prevailing Wage First

Before any data goes on the form, confirm the current prevailing wage for every trade classification on your project. California sets its own rates by craft and county and updates them periodically, so a rate that applied on a prior job may no longer be current. The DIR publishes wage determinations on its Prevailing Wage Determinations page, searchable by craft, classification, and county, with separate lookup tools for apprentice rates and residential rates.²

Each determination lists a base hourly rate plus required fringe contributions for health and welfare, pension, vacation, and training. The prevailing wage is the total of those pieces, not just the cash portion. If the project also receives federal funding, California and Davis-Bacon rates often differ; you must pay whichever is higher for each classification. Using federal rates alone on a state-covered project is one of the most common compliance errors.

Filling Out Form A-1-131

The blank PDF is on the DIR site.¹ The eCPR system’s manual-entry option (the iForm) mirrors this same layout. An awarding body may accept its own format, but any alternative must contain all information required by Labor Code Section 1776.³

Worker Identification and Classification

For each worker on the project during the pay period, enter full name, home address, and Social Security number.⁴ The work classification (carpenter, electrician, laborer, operating engineer, and so on) must match the actual work performed on site, not the worker’s general job title or the rate you would prefer to pay. Someone who spends the day doing plumbing work gets reported as a plumber, even if you hired them as a general laborer.

Hours Worked

Record hours by calendar day for the pay period, split into straight time and overtime. California calculates overtime daily: anything over eight hours in one day is overtime at 1.5 times the base rate, and anything over twelve hours in a day is double time. You cannot average hours across the week the way you might on a private project. A worker who puts in ten hours Monday and six Tuesday has two overtime hours from Monday; the short day does not offset them. The form totals the daily entries into weekly straight-time and overtime columns.

Wages, Fringe Benefits, and Deductions

Enter the hourly rate actually paid, which must meet or exceed the prevailing wage determination for that classification and county. The form has separate columns for health and welfare, pension, and vacation or holiday contributions. If you pay fringes in cash rather than into a benefit plan, the cash amount still belongs in the fringe columns. Travel and subsistence payments go in their own column when the wage determination requires them.

On the deductions side, itemize federal tax, FICA, state tax, SDI, and union dues in the designated columns. Anything else (garnishments, tool purchases, advances) goes in the “Other” column with a written explanation. The form calculates net wages paid and asks for the check number. Cross-check every line against your payroll register before submitting. Discrepancies between internal records and certified payroll are exactly what auditors flag.

Reporting Apprentices

On apprenticeable crafts, California generally requires at least one hour of apprentice work for every five hours of journeyworker work in that trade, applied on any day a journeyworker is employed at the site and calculated on that day’s journeyworker hours.⁵ Journeyworker hours beyond eight per day do not count toward the ratio.

Apprentices appear on Form A-1-131 like any other worker, but the classification should show apprentice status and period, for example “Carpenter Apprentice — 3rd Period.” Their wage rate is a percentage of the journeyworker rate under the applicable apprenticeship standards, and the DIR publishes apprentice wage sheets separately from journeyworker rates.² Confirm each apprentice is registered with the Division of Apprenticeship Standards before they start work.

Submitting Through eCPR

On most public works projects, contractors and subcontractors must submit certified payroll records electronically to the Labor Commissioner through the DIR’s eCPR application.⁶ Access it through the DIR’s Public Works Website Services portal.⁷ Two entry methods are available:

Manual entry (iForm). On the eCPR home page, click “Enter your CPRs manually using the iForm,” enter your Federal Employer Identification Number, then select the DIR Project ID (use the lookup tool if you don’t have it). Complete the yellow-highlighted mandatory fields for each employee, and click “Add Employee” to add more workers to the same report.
XML upload. Click “Browse” on the eCPR home page to select an XML file generated by your payroll software; it must follow the DIR’s CPR XML schema. After the system validates the file, click the link to load the data into the online form for review.

Either way, complete the Certification section, click “Click to Sign,” and then “Submit.” Once signed, the form locks and cannot be edited.⁸ A confirmation page appears after a successful submission. The system does not save your data for later retrieval, so print or save the PDF version before you close the window. That printout is your receipt.

No contractor can be forced to use proprietary software, and a contractor without the resources for electronic submission cannot be required to use it.⁹ In that situation, a printed, signed paper copy is acceptable.

How Often to File, and What to Do During Idle Weeks

Certified payroll must be furnished to the Labor Commissioner at least monthly, but your contract with the awarding body can require more frequent submissions.⁶ Weekly filing is common on prime contracts, so check the contract terms rather than assuming the monthly floor applies.

If no work happened during a pay period on an active project, don’t skip the filing. Use the eCPR non-performance checkbox, confirm the dialog, and submit.⁸ If you already filed a regular report for a period when no work actually occurred, a later Statement of Non-Performance for the same period takes precedence over the erroneous submission.¹⁰

Mistakes That Trigger Penalties

A handful of errors show up over and over in DIR reviews:

Using federal Davis-Bacon rates when California’s rates are higher. On projects with both funding sources, you owe the higher of the two.
Classifying workers by job title rather than the task actually performed on site.
Averaging hours across the week instead of calculating overtime daily.
Paying the correct base rate but shorting the fringe contributions (health and welfare, pension, vacation, training) required by the determination.
Filing on a format that doesn’t carry every Section 1776 data field. Standard payroll stubs and the federal WH-347 alone do not satisfy California’s requirements.

Keeping Records After You File

Submitting through eCPR does not end your obligations. Keep copies of every certified payroll record, physical or digital, available for inspection after the project ends. Computer printouts are acceptable in place of the original form as long as they contain the same information.¹¹

When the DIR, the Labor Commissioner, the awarding body, or the Division of Apprenticeship Standards sends a written request, you have ten calendar days to produce the records. Miss that deadline and you forfeit $100 per calendar day (or any portion of a day) for each worker whose records are missing, and the penalty keeps accruing until you comply. The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement can direct the awarding body to withhold the amount from your progress payments.¹¹ On a 30-worker project, a week of noncompliance is $21,000. Store records where you can retrieve them fast, because the ten-day clock starts when the notice arrives, not when you get around to reading it.

If the Project Also Has Federal Funding

Form A-1-131 covers your state obligation. On a federally funded or federally assisted construction contract above $2,000, Davis-Bacon triggers a second reporting stream: weekly certified payroll to the contracting agency on Department of Labor Form WH-347, with a Copeland Act statement of wages paid for the prior week.¹²¹³ The WH-347 does not substitute for A-1-131. File both, using the higher of the two prevailing wage rates for each classification. Federal violations can lead to debarment from future federal contracts for up to three years.¹⁴

1
Department of Industrial Relations. California DIR Public Works Payroll Reporting Form
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Department of Industrial Relations. Director’s General Prevailing Wage Determinations
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Department of Industrial Relations. Labor Commissioner’s Office Public Works
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California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 1776 – Payroll Records
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 1777.5
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California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 1771.4 – Public Works
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Department of Industrial Relations. Certified Payroll Reporting
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Department of Industrial Relations. Department of Industrial Relations eCPR Application User Guide
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New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 8 California Code of Regulations 16404 – Use of Electronic Reporting Forms
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Department of Industrial Relations. Frequently Asked Questions on Certified Payroll Reporting
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 1776
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U.S. Department of Labor. Davis-Bacon and Related Acts
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U.S. Department of Labor. Instructions For Completing Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Weekly Certified Payroll Form
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U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 66 – The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts