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Public Works Desk

Prevailing wage labor-cost calculator

By the Public Works Desk Team · Last verified · How we check every number · Corrections

Source: 29 CFR 5.5 Contract provisions and related matters. (eCFR, current as of 2026-11-10)

Price the minimum wages and fringe a crew is owed on a Davis-Bacon job, with the real rates of the WD you pick.

Electrician, Travis County TX (TX20260271 mod 1): at least $47.19 an hour ($36.50 base + $10.69 fringe).

Four of them, 45-hour weeks for 6 weeks: $53,155.20 in wages and fringe. Change the crew below.

Rates: TX20260271 mod 1, published 2026-05-18, on SAM.gov

An equipment operator and a project engineer in hard hats and safety vests talk beside a trench of concrete culvert pipe on a desert road job.

How it is calculated

  1. Straight timeUp to 40 hours per worker per week × base rate.
  2. OvertimeHours over 40 × the overtime rate (base × 1.5, to the cent) on contracts over $100,000 (CWHSSA).
  3. FringeAll hours × fringe rate, never multiplied by 1.5.
  4. Every line to the centEach line is hours × the rate printed next to it, and the total is the sum of the lines, so you can redo it on paper.

Pricing apprentices too?

The bid cost calculator adds them, the fringe credit and the bonds in one number.

“unless such laborer or mechanic receives compensation at a rate not less than one and one-half

times the basic rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of forty hours in such workweek.”

29 CFR 5.5 Contract provisions and related matters. · eCFR, current as of 2026-11-10
Limits. This is the legal minimum under the WD, not your full labor burden: add payroll taxes, workers' comp, insurance and overhead. State law may set higher rates. Entries outside sensible ranges show “—” instead of a number.

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