How to Complete and Submit the Massachusetts Weekly Certified Payroll Report

If you are a contractor or subcontractor on a Massachusetts public works job, you must file a Massachusetts Weekly Certified Payroll Report for every week your crew works on the project, along with a signed Statement of Compliance, and continue filing until 15 days after your portion of the work ends.¹² The report documents that every worker on the job was paid at or above the prevailing wage rates set by the Department of Labor Standards under M.G.L. c. 149, §§ 26–27B.³ You send it to the awarding authority by first-class mail or email.

Where to Get the Form

The state’s PDF is at mass.gov/doc/weekly-certified-payroll-report/download.¹ Some awarding authorities supply their own version with the same fields, so check your contract documents before you assume the state template is what your agency wants.

If your project is with the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, there is no paper form. DCAMM requires contractors to self-report payroll and workforce data through its online Contractor Management System (DCMS).⁴

What to Gather Before You Start

Pull these together before you open the form. Missing any of them will either slow you down or produce errors that invite scrutiny.

Project identifiers: contract number, awarding authority’s legal name, project name, and project location. These go at the top of the form.⁵
Your contractor Tax Payer ID.
The prevailing wage schedule for your project. DLS issues a project-specific schedule listing the hourly rate for each trade classification, plus required fringe contributions for health and welfare, pension, and supplemental unemployment. If you do not have a copy, the awarding authority should, or you can request one from DLS.⁶
Employee records: full name, complete address, occupational classification, daily hours, and pay details for every worker who set foot on the site that week.⁵

Classification is where most payroll problems start. The wage schedule assigns a rate to each trade — carpenter, laborer, electrician, and so on. If a worker does laborer tasks Monday and carpenter-level work Tuesday, report the correct classification and rate for each day, not a blended average. Rates are based on local collective bargaining agreements and vary by project and trade.⁶

Filling Out the Payroll Rows

Each row is one employee for the reporting week. Enter the worker’s name, address, and occupational classification, then break out hours worked on the project by day so overtime is transparent.

Enter the hourly base wage from the prevailing wage schedule. The form has columns for employer fringe contributions in three categories: health and welfare insurance, ERISA pension plan, and supplemental unemployment.¹ Multiply the base wage and fringe rates by project hours to get gross pay and total fringe obligations.

If you pay fringes to workers as cash rather than into a benefit plan, note that on the form. The total cash wage must still equal or exceed the combined base-plus-fringe rate in the schedule. You cannot deduct from the total prevailing wage when paying fringes as cash.

Then record deductions. Statutory withholdings — federal and state income tax, FICA — come first, followed by voluntary deductions. Net pay should reconcile with your internal accounting records before you finalize anything. Discrepancies between your books and the certified payroll are exactly what triggers an audit from the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division.

Filling Out the Workforce Participation Section

The lower half of the form tracks workforce diversity, not wages. Massachusetts sets participation goals of 15.3 percent for minorities and 6.9 percent for women on public construction projects.¹ For each employee listed above, enter the hours worked in each trade and identify the worker as a woman, minority, or non-minority.

Leaving this section blank makes the submission incomplete. On DCAMM projects, the general contractor acting as prime approver in DCMS must confirm that all subcontractors have current payroll and workforce reporting before submitting payment requisitions.⁴

Signing the Statement of Compliance

Every weekly submission needs a signed Statement of Compliance. The signer must be someone who pays or directly supervises the payment of wages for your company on that project. Signing certifies, under the penalties of perjury, that all workers were paid in accordance with the prevailing wage rates determined under M.G.L. c. 149, §§ 26 and 27, covering both base wages and fringe contributions.²

This is not a rubber stamp. The signatory is personally attesting that the classifications on the form match the actual work performed and that no unauthorized deductions were taken. If the numbers turn out to be wrong, the signature runs accountability straight back to the person who certified them. A missing or incomplete Statement of Compliance makes the whole week’s submission deficient.

How and When to Submit

Send the completed form and the Statement of Compliance to the awarding authority by first-class mail or email each week.¹ A final submission is due within 15 days after you complete your portion of the work.² Your contract may add delivery requirements or a specific email address, so read those terms early.

DCAMM projects replace paper or emailed reports with entries in DCMS. The general contractor confirms every subcontractor’s reports are current before requesting payment.⁴ If you are a subcontractor on a DCAMM job, falling behind on payroll submissions can hold up the general contractor’s payment requisition.

Keeping Records

Hold onto every certified payroll report for at least three years from the date you complete your contract. That is the retention period under M.G.L. c. 149, § 27B.⁷ During that window, DLS and the Attorney General’s office can request copies at any time, and you must produce them promptly. Store both digital and physical copies. Reconstructing payroll three years after a project wrapped is a losing exercise.

Watch the Independent Contractor Question

Massachusetts presumes that everyone on a job site is an employee, not an independent contractor.⁶ Anyone doing work on your public project should appear on the certified payroll with a proper classification and prevailing wage rate, unless they clearly meet the narrow legal test for independent contractor status. Misclassifying employees to avoid paying prevailing wages is one of the most common enforcement targets.

Penalties

Under M.G.L. c. 149, § 27C, exposure escalates sharply if a violation is willful.

Criminal Penalties

A non-willful first offense can bring a fine of up to $10,000, up to six months in jail, or both. A subsequent non-willful offense raises the ceiling to a $25,000 fine and up to one year in jail. A first willful offense can bring up to $25,000 and up to one year of imprisonment. A subsequent willful offense: up to $50,000 in fines and up to two years in prison.⁸

Civil Citations and Debarment

The Attorney General can issue a civil citation instead of pursuing criminal charges, requiring you to fix the violation, pay restitution, and pay a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per violation.⁸

Debarment follows any conviction. A willful violation triggers a five-year ban from contracting with the Commonwealth or any of its agencies and political subdivisions. Non-willful convictions carry a ban of up to six months for a first offense and up to three years for subsequent offenses.⁸ A five-year lockout from public work in Massachusetts can put a contractor out of business. The form takes an hour a week.

1
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Weekly Certified Payroll Report and Workforce Participation Form
2
Brewster, MA. Weekly Payroll Records Report and Statement of Compliance
3
Mass.gov. Prevailing Wage Statutes
4
Mass.gov. Certified Payroll Reporting (Construction)
5
Southeastern Regional Transit Authority. Massachusetts Weekly Certified Payroll Report Form
6
Mass.gov. Prevailing Wage: For Contractors
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code 149 Section 27B – Records of Employees; Payroll Records; Statements of Compliance
8
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 149 Section 27C