New Jersey Prevailing Wage Rates: Coverage, Payroll, and Penalties

New Jersey prevailing wage rates are the minimum hourly pay, broken into a base wage and a fringe benefit amount, that contractors must pay workers on publicly funded construction projects. Rates are set by the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development based on collective bargaining agreements in each locality, and they vary by county and by trade.¹ The Department of Labor and Workforce Development publishes current schedules online, and the rules apply to covered public works contracts of $2,000 or more, or $19,375 or more when the contracting body is a municipality.²

How to Look Up the Rate for Your Project

To pull the right rate, you need three things: the county where the physical work will happen, the specific trade classifications involved, and whether each worker is a journeyworker or a registered apprentice.

For general reference, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development publishes downloadable rate schedules organized by county. Select the county for building trades, or select “Statewide Rates” for operators and heavy/general laborers, who have statewide rather than county-specific rates. Archived rates for prior periods are also posted.²

For an official wage determination tied to a specific contract, the public body or its representative files an online application through the Department’s portal with the project details. The system returns a determination document listing every applicable rate and its effective dates. If a trade on your job is not listed on the county schedule, the contractor has to request a special determination from the Department to get a verified rate for that classification.

What Makes Up a Rate

Each prevailing wage determination has two components: a base hourly wage and a fringe benefit rate. The total of both is the floor the contractor must deliver for each hour worked. Fringe benefits can be paid into approved plans, funds, or programs on behalf of the worker, or paid directly to the worker in cash.³ A contractor that offers no health insurance, pension, or other qualifying plan has to add the full fringe amount onto the hourly cash wage.

Qualifying fringe benefits include health insurance, pension contributions, vacation funds, and holiday pay. Certified payroll records must separately itemize fringes paid to plans and fringes paid as cash.

Overtime

Overtime rules are set within each county’s wage determination and vary by trade. Most trades require time and a half for hours over eight per day and for Saturday work, with double time for Sundays and holidays. Some trades have their own quirks. Boilermakers earn four times the hourly rate on Labor Day. Electricians in some counties earn time and a half for the first four overtime hours before double time takes over.

Unless the determination says otherwise, the fringe rate stays at the straight-time amount during overtime. When the determination says overtime is “inclusive of benefits,” the fringe scales up by the same multiplier as the base wage.

When Prevailing Wage Applies

The Act covers construction, demolition, alteration, repair, maintenance, painting, and custom fabrication performed under contract and paid for with public funds. Work performed under a rehabilitation program is excluded.² Protected workers include laborers, skilled and semi-skilled tradespeople, and apprentices employed by any contractor or subcontractor working directly on the project.¹ A contractor doing custom fabrication for a specific project is treated as a covered employer rather than a material supplier.

The dollar threshold depends on who is awarding the contract:

Municipal government contracts: $19,375 or more.
All other public entities, including boards of education, municipal utility authorities, county governments, and state agencies: $2,000 or more.

The $19,375 municipal figure is the current amount, effective July 1, 2024, and it adjusts every five years based on the Consumer Price Index for the New York and Philadelphia metro regions.⁴ The gap between the two thresholds catches bidders off guard. A $10,000 school district renovation triggers prevailing wage. A $15,000 municipal sidewalk project does not.

Apprentice Rates

Only apprentices registered with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship and enrolled in a certified apprenticeship program can be paid at apprentice rates. An unregistered worker doing the same tasks has to be paid the full journeyworker rate, and if the wage determination for a trade has no apprentice schedule, even registered apprentices get the journeyworker rate.

The default ratio is one apprentice per four journeyworkers unless the determination for that trade sets a different ratio. If the Department later finds that a worker paid at an apprentice rate was actually entitled to journeyworker pay, the contractor owes the difference retroactively, along with any applicable fringe benefits.⁴

What a Covered Contractor Has to Do

Register Before Bidding

Every contractor and subcontractor that bids on or performs construction-related public works in New Jersey must register with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development before starting work.⁵ As of August 15, 2024, all applications are submitted online; paper is no longer accepted. One-year registration costs $500. A two-year registration is $750 and is available only to contractors continuously registered for the previous two consecutive years with no prior violations of the Contractor Registration Act or the Prevailing Wage Act. Online filings carry an additional $4 service fee plus a 1.9% charge for credit card payments. Fees are non-refundable, and processing takes about 30 days.

File Certified Payroll

Contractors and subcontractors submit certified payroll records to the public body overseeing the project for every payroll period, within 10 days of paying wages.⁶ A certified payroll is a sworn statement that each worker has been paid at least the applicable prevailing wage and fringe benefits. Each record has to include the worker’s name, trade classification, actual hourly rate, daily and weekly hours, gross and net pay, itemized deductions, and the fringe breakdown between plan contributions and cash.³ Records have to be preserved for two years from the date of payment and kept open for inspection by the public body, the Commissioner, or other parties to the contract.²

Post Rates at the Site

The applicable prevailing wage rates for each craft and classification have to be posted at the job site in a prominent, easily accessible location, along with the effective date of any rate changes.⁴

Penalties for Underpayment

The Commissioner can impose administrative fines of up to $2,500 for a first violation and up to $5,000 for each subsequent violation. Employers who owe back wages also pay an administrative fee of 10% to 25% of the unpaid amount. The Commissioner can issue stop-work orders, and continuing operations in violation of such an order carries a $5,000-per-day civil penalty. Subcontractors who fail to produce requested records within 14 days face penalties of up to $7,500 per day until they comply. If a contractor misses the 10-day deadline to file certified payroll after a Commissioner request, the public body can be directed to withhold 25% of the amount owed under the contract, up to $100,000, until records are produced.⁴

Knowingly paying below the prevailing wage is a crime under N.J.S.A. 2C:21-34, scaled to contract size:

Contract of $75,000 or more: second-degree crime.
Contract between $2,500 and $75,000: third-degree crime.
Contract of $2,500 or less: fourth-degree crime.

Separately, hindering an investigation, falsifying records, or refusing to provide records on demand is a disorderly persons offense carrying fines of $100 to $1,000 and possible imprisonment of 10 to 90 days. Each week any worker is underpaid, and each affected worker, counts as a separate offense.⁴

A contractor found to have failed or refused to pay the prevailing wage can be debarred from all public contracts for three years.⁷ The Commissioner has discretion over whether to impose debarment and weighs factors including violation history, the scale of underpayment, outstanding audit results, and whether the employer submitted falsified records. Debarment reaches not only the named contractor but any firm in which that contractor has an interest.

Federal Davis-Bacon Overlap

If a project also receives federal funding or assistance, the federal Davis-Bacon Act applies on top of the New Jersey rules, with its own $2,000 contract threshold.⁸ When both apply, the contractor pays whichever rate is higher for each trade classification. Federal violations carry their own penalties, including a three-year debarment from all federally funded contracts.⁹ Contractors on dual-covered projects often keep both state and federal payroll documentation to satisfy each system.

Worker Protection Against Retaliation

Firing or otherwise punishing a worker for filing a prevailing wage complaint is a disorderly persons offense, punishable by a fine of $100 to $1,000.⁴ A worker who believes they are being underpaid can file a complaint with the Department’s Division of Wage and Hour Compliance.

1
New Jersey Revised Statutes. New Jersey Code 34:11-56.26 – Definitions
2
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Prevailing Wage Rates on Construction-Related Public Works Projects
3
Legal Information Institute. New Jersey Administrative Code 12:60-2.1 – Definitions
4
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. NJ State Prevailing Wage Act and Regulations
5
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Wage and Hour Compliance – Public Works Contractor Registration
6
Legal Information Institute. New Jersey Administrative Code 12:60-5.1 – Inspections
7
Legal Information Institute. New Jersey Administrative Code 12:60-7.3 – Conditions of Debarment
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Davis-Bacon and Related Acts
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #66: The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts