What Is Prevailing Wage in Illinois? Covered Projects and Certified Payroll

Prevailing wage in Illinois is the hourly cash wage plus fringe benefits that every contractor and subcontractor must pay laborers, workers, and mechanics on a public works project. The rate is set by trade and by county, published each year by the Illinois Department of Labor, and applies to any project built, maintained, repaired, or demolished by a public body or paid for with public funds.¹ There is no minimum project dollar amount in Illinois, so the obligation applies to a small township repair just as it does to a highway contract.

Which Projects Are Covered

The Prevailing Wage Act (820 ILCS 130) applies to all “public works,” defined as fixed works built or demolished by a public body or paid for in whole or in part with public funds. Coverage reaches beyond new construction to include maintenance, repair, assembly, and disassembly work, and it extends to work performed on rented or leased equipment.¹

A “public body” covers nearly every level of Illinois government: state agencies, counties, cities, villages, townships, school districts, park districts, forest preserve districts, library districts, and any other political subdivision or institution supported by public funds. If one of these entities commissions or funds the work, prevailing wage applies, and the public body cannot opt out of any part of the Act.¹

Which Workers Must Be Paid the Prevailing Rate

The Act covers laborers, workers, and mechanics directly employed by contractors or subcontractors doing actual construction on the project site: carpenters, electricians, ironworkers, operating engineers, painters, and the other trades. What matters is the physical work the person performs, not the job title. A worker who spends part of the day on hands-on construction must be paid the prevailing rate for those hours. Administrative staff, engineers, and architects are generally outside the Act unless they are performing manual labor on site.¹

Truck Drivers Hauling to the Site

Drivers who move materials and equipment to or from the project site are covered when they work for the contractor or subcontractor. Drivers working for a material seller or supplier making a delivery are not covered, and neither are workers manufacturing or processing materials off-site. A concrete company’s own driver delivering a load falls outside the Act; the general contractor’s employee driving materials to the job falls inside it.¹

Registered Apprentices

Registered apprentices are the only workers who can be paid below the full journeyman rate on a public works job. The apprentice must be enrolled in a program certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The cash rate is set by the terms of that federal apprenticeship program, but the employer still owes the full fringe benefit package required for a journeyman in the same trade. There is no reduced rate for a pre-apprentice or an informal trainee.²

What the Rate Includes

The published prevailing wage is a total compensation figure, not a bare hourly rate. It consists of an hourly cash wage plus fringe benefits.³ Fringe benefits typically include:

Health and welfare insurance (medical, dental, and vision)
Pension and retirement contributions
Apprenticeship and training program contributions
Vacation pay built into the hourly figure

Employers can meet the fringe portion by contributing to approved benefit plans or by paying the equivalent dollar amount directly to the worker as additional cash wages. Either way, total compensation must meet or exceed the published rate for the trade and county.

Overtime and holiday work carry their own rates in the published schedule. The statute requires “not less than the general prevailing rate of hourly wages for legal holiday and overtime work,” so the premium varies by trade and county and reflects the local standard (often time-and-a-half or double time, depending on the day and the applicable collective bargaining agreement).¹ Check the specific schedule rather than assuming a uniform multiplier.

How Rates Are Set and Where to Find Them

The Illinois Department of Labor investigates and sets prevailing wage rates for every county in June of each year and publishes the new schedule on its website by July 15. When a collective bargaining agreement covers at least 30 percent of the workers in a given trade and locality, that agreement’s rate generally becomes the prevailing rate, and any scheduled future increases built into the agreement are published alongside the current figures.⁴

Current schedules are posted by the Department organized by county and trade. Each schedule lists the base hourly cash wage, the dollar figures for each fringe category, and the overtime and holiday rates for every covered occupation. To use them, find the county where the work will be done and the specific trade classification, such as “Electrician” or “Operating Engineer — Group 1.”⁵ If a trade is not listed for a county, the Department can issue a project-specific wage determination on request.

Rates can change mid-year when bargained increases take effect, so verify the schedule when the contract is signed and again at reasonable intervals during the job. Public bodies awarding contracts must specify the applicable rates in the call for bids (or in a written document given to workers if the body does the work itself), including both the standard rate and the overtime and holiday rate for every trade needed.

Anyone who believes a published rate is wrong can file a written objection with the Department within 30 days of publication, supported by evidence. The originally published rate must still be paid while the objection is pending.⁴

Certified Payroll and Records

Every contractor and subcontractor on a prevailing wage project must file a certified payroll with the public body (or the Department of Labor’s electronic database, once activated) by the 15th of each month for the previous month’s work. A filing is only required for months in which construction actually took place. Each certified payroll must include a signed statement that the records are accurate, that every worker was paid at least the prevailing rate, and that the signer understands a knowingly false payroll is a Class A misdemeanor.⁶

The underlying records must cover every laborer, mechanic, and worker on the job and include names, trade classifications, skill levels, hourly rates, hours worked each day, and gross and net wages. Keep these records for at least five years from the date of the last payment on the contract.⁶ Failing to maintain or produce the records is itself a violation of the Act, and two such violations within five years can lead to debarment.²

Penalties for Underpayment

Penalties for underpaying workers escalate. On a first violation, the contractor owes the shortfall to the worker plus a Department of Labor penalty equal to 20 percent of that underpayment. The worker is also owed an additional 2 percent of the penalty amount for each month the underpayment goes uncorrected. For a second or later violation, the Department’s penalty rises to 50 percent of the underpayment and the monthly amount owed to the worker rises to 5 percent.²

Debarment

A contractor or subcontractor found to have violated the Act on two separate occasions within a five-year period can be debarred from any public works contract for four years. Debarment reaches not only the named contractor but also any firm, corporation, partnership, or association in which that contractor has an interest.⁷

Criminal Penalties for False Payrolls

A contractor, officer, employee, or agent who willfully files a certified payroll that is false as to a material fact is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, the most serious misdemeanor classification in Illinois.² A conviction triggers immediate four-year debarment with no right to a hearing.⁷

When Federal Davis-Bacon Also Applies

If an Illinois public works project receives federal funding, the federal Davis-Bacon Act may apply alongside the state law. Davis-Bacon covers federally funded or assisted construction contracts over $2,000. When both laws apply, contractors must pay whichever rate is higher for each trade classification. Projects with federal prime contracts over $100,000 also trigger the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act, which has its own overtime rules.⁸ On a federally funded Illinois project, check both the state schedule and the applicable federal wage determination and pay the higher of the two.

1
Justia. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 130 – Prevailing Wage Act
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Illinois Department of Labor. Prevailing Wage Act FAQ
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Illinois Department of Labor. Prevailing Wage Act
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 130/9
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Illinois Department of Labor. Current Prevailing Rates
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 130/5
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 130/11a
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U.S. Department of Labor. Davis-Bacon and Related Acts