How to Complete and Submit the NJ Certified Payroll Form MW-562

The New Jersey certified payroll form MW-562 is the weekly filing that contractors and subcontractors on public works projects use to prove every worker on the job was paid the correct prevailing wage. You complete one for each pay period, for each project, and submit it to the public body that awarded the contract within ten days of the date you actually paid your employees.¹ Every person who worked on the project that week appears on the form, with their trade classification, daily hours, hourly rate, fringe benefits, and deductions. Errors delay progress payments, invite administrative fines, and can eventually bar your company from public work in New Jersey.

What to Have in Place Before Your First Payroll

Your company must be registered with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development under the Contractor Registration Act (N.J.S.A. 34:11-56.48 et seq.) before you bid on or perform any New Jersey public works project. One-year registration is $500. A two-year option runs $750, but only if you have been continuously registered for the prior two years with no violations of the Contractor Registration Act or the Prevailing Wage Act.² Your Contractor Registration number goes in the MW-562 header, so keep it accessible.

New Jersey also expects contractors to register in the NJ Wage Hub at njwages.nj.gov, and separately to sign up for Employer Access. Those are two accounts, not one. The Wage Hub is where the state tracks certified payroll submissions electronically. Set both up before your first pay period on the job.³

You also need the official prevailing wage determination for your specific project. The NJDOL issues these on a project-by-project basis at the request of the contracting public entity, so ask the school board, county, or state agency that awarded the contract for the determination that governs your job. Rates in effect on the date the contract was awarded apply for the life of the project, including any predetermined increases listed in that document.⁴ The MW-562 itself is a PDF download from the NJDOL website.⁵

Filling Out the Form

The MW-562 has two working parts: a header identifying the project and company, and a columnar section covering each employee’s week. A sworn certification sits at the bottom.

Header

The top asks for your company name and business address, the project name and location, a payroll number (sequential for this project), the week-ending date, the NJ Department of Labor project name, the Contract ID or Project ID, your Contractor Registration number, and the date wages were due and paid.⁶ Match the Contract ID to your contract documents exactly. A single wrong digit is one of the most common causes of delayed processing.

Employee Columns

Each row is one worker for the week. The form’s ten columns capture:

Column 1, name and home address. The MW-562 itself has no field for Social Security numbers, though the underlying payroll records you maintain must include SSNs under N.J.A.C. 12:60-2.1.⁷
Column 2, work classification. Use the specific trade as it appears in the prevailing wage determination (journeyman, foreman, apprentice, carpenter, electrician, plumber). Do not use generic labels like “helper” or “technician.” If a worker performed tasks in more than one classification during the week, put each classification on its own row with the hours and rate that go with it.
Column 3, sex, race, and ethnicity.
Columns 4 and 5, day, date, and hours worked each day Sunday through Saturday.
Column 6, total straight-time and overtime hours, broken out separately.
Column 7, the base hourly rate actually paid, not including fringe.
Column 8, gross amount earned for the week.
Column 9, itemized deductions including FICA, withholding tax, and the total deduction figure.
Column 10, net wages paid and the total fringe benefit cost per hour.⁶

Fringe Benefits

The prevailing wage includes a fringe component covering items like health insurance contributions, pension fund payments, and vacation pay. You can satisfy that requirement by paying into approved plans, paying the fringe amount in cash directly to the employee, or combining the two. Whichever method you use, document the total fringe benefit cost per hour in Column 10 and note any exceptions or cash arrangements in the Remarks section.⁵

Fringe rates vary by classification the same way base wages do. A plumber’s fringe package will not match a laborer’s, so check the determination for each classification’s fringe rate before reporting. You also cannot claim credit for benefits the law already requires, such as Social Security contributions or workers’ compensation insurance. Only voluntary, above-the-minimum benefits count toward the fringe component.

Apprentices

Apprentices may be paid a reduced apprentice rate only if each one is individually registered in a program approved by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship. Keep written proof of registration in your project file and make it available for inspection by the public body and the Commissioner.⁸ A worker not properly registered in an approved program must be classified and paid as a journeyman, regardless of experience.

The Commissioner sets apprentice-to-journeyman ratios as part of the wage determination. If the applicable collective bargaining agreement does not specify a ratio, the default is one apprentice for every four journeymen. When the determination shows no apprentice rate for a given trade, you pay the full journeyman rate even for registered apprentices.⁸ If the state later determines an apprentice should have been paid the journeyman rate, you owe the difference plus any fringe the worker missed.

Certification

The bottom of the form is a sworn statement. The signer certifies that all workers on the project were paid the full weekly wages earned, that no impermissible deductions were made, and that the classifications and rates conform to the prevailing wage determination in the contract.⁵ A false certification carries criminal exposure, so the person signing should have direct knowledge of the payroll, whether that is a company officer, project manager, or payroll supervisor.

Where and When to File

Submit the signed MW-562 to the public body or lessor that contracted for the project, meaning the school board, municipality, county office, or state department that awarded the contract. That agency receives, files, stores, and makes the records available for inspection at its normal place of business.¹ Do not send it directly to the NJDOL unless the Department requests it during an audit or investigation.

The deadline is ten days from the date you actually paid wages for that period.¹ The clock starts on the pay date, not on the last day of the work week. If you pay on Friday for the week ending the previous Saturday, you have ten days from that Friday. Miss it and the contracting agency can hold up progress payments until you catch up.

The MW-562 header has a checkbox for “Final Certification.” Mark it on the last payroll you submit for the project.

Errors That Get the Form Rejected

Most rejections come from the same short list. Catching these before submission saves weeks of correspondence with the contracting agency.

Generic titles like “technician” or “helper” instead of a DOL-recognized classification. The reviewer matches each worker’s title to a line in the wage determination, so a title that is not on the determination gets kicked back.
One classification used for split work. If a worker ran heavy equipment half the week and did general labor the rest, those are two classifications at two rates on two rows.
Fringe miscalculation. If you provide health insurance worth $8.00 per hour but the determination calls for $10.50, you owe the $2.50 difference as a cash supplement, and the form has to show it.
A mismatched Contract ID or Project ID. It must match the public body’s records exactly.
Unsigned or undated certification. An unsigned form is not a certified payroll and will be returned.

Record Retention

New Jersey requires employers to keep wage and hour records for six years.⁹ That covers every MW-562 you file, plus the supporting documents behind it: time cards, benefit plan payment receipts, cancelled checks, and the prevailing wage determination itself. Organize them by project and pay period. If the Commissioner requests your records during an investigation, you have ten days to produce them. If you miss that window, the Commissioner can direct the public body to withhold up to 25 percent of the amount owed to you under the contract, capped at $100,000, until you turn the records over.⁸

What Non-Compliance Costs

Penalties for prevailing wage violations layer on top of each other. Knowingly paying less than the prevailing wage or otherwise violating the Prevailing Wage Act is a disorderly persons offense carrying a fine of $100 to $1,000, imprisonment for 10 to 90 days, or both. Each week a worker is underpaid, and each affected worker, counts as a separate offense.¹⁰

Separately, the Commissioner can assess administrative fines of up to $2,500 for a first violation and up to $5,000 for each subsequent violation, in addition to or instead of criminal sanctions, and without a court conviction.¹¹ The Commissioner can also issue a stop-work order halting activity on the project, and can order the public body to withhold up to 25 percent of your remaining contract payments (up to $100,000) if you fail to produce records within ten days of a request.⁸ Both tools can be used during an investigation, before any formal adjudication.

The most severe penalty is debarment. Contractors placed on the Commissioner’s list of prevailing wage violators cannot be awarded any public works contract in New Jersey for three years from the date of listing.¹² Public bodies are required to check the debarment list before awarding a contract. The Commissioner can also suspend or revoke your contractor registration for up to five years under the Contractor Registration Act.⁸

When Federal Certified Payroll Also Applies

The MW-562 covers the New Jersey side. If your project also receives federal funding through a grant, loan, or loan guarantee, the Davis-Bacon Act likely applies on top. Davis-Bacon covers construction contracts exceeding $2,000 on federally funded or assisted projects and requires payment of locally prevailing wages set by the U.S. Department of Labor.¹³

On dual-coverage projects you will generally file the federal Form WH-347 alongside the MW-562. WH-347 goes to the federal agency or the entity administering the federal funding; the MW-562 still goes to the state or local public body.¹⁴ The two forms collect similar data, but the wage determinations may differ because the federal and state rates are set independently. When the federal and state prevailing wages conflict for the same trade, you pay whichever is higher. The contracting agency usually flags Davis-Bacon coverage in the bid package and includes the federal wage determination, so confirm the requirement in your contract documents before your first payroll.

1
Legal Information Institute. New Jersey Admin Code 12:60-5.1 – Inspections
2
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Public Works Contractor Registration
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New Jersey Wage Hub. New Jersey Wage Hub
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New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Prevailing Wage Rates on Construction-Related Public Works Projects
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New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. MW-562 New Jersey Payroll Certification Form
6
William Paterson University. MW-562 New Jersey Payroll Certification Form
7
Legal Information Institute. New Jersey Admin Code 12:60-2.1 – Definitions
8
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. New Jersey Code 34:11-56.25 – New Jersey State Prevailing Wage Act
9
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Chapter 194, Laws of New Jersey, 2009 – Employer Obligation to Maintain and Report Records
10
Justia. New Jersey Code 34:11-56.35 – Penalties, Stop-Work Orders
11
Legal Information Institute. New Jersey Admin Code 12:60-8.3 – Administrative Penalties
12
Justia. New Jersey Code 34:11-56.38 – Prohibition Against Award of Contract to Non-Complying Contractors
13
U.S. Department of Labor. Davis-Bacon and Related Acts
14
U.S. Department of Labor. Instructions for Completing Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Weekly Certified Payroll Form