The public works glossary

California public works compliance speaks in acronyms. Here is the alphabet soup, decoded in plain English, with links to the deeper guides where they exist.

Certified payroll: A payroll report signed under penalty of perjury, stating what each worker on a public works project was paid, in the detail and format the government requires. The signature is what makes it certified. See the complete guide.
Prevailing wage: The minimum wage package, base rate plus fringe benefits, that must be paid on public works, set by craft and locality in published determinations. What you must pay; certified payroll is how you prove you paid it. See the distinction explained.
Wage determination: The published document stating prevailing rates for each craft in each locality, including fringe amounts and any predetermined increases. California determinations come from DIR; federal ones from the U.S. DOL under Davis-Bacon.
DIR: The California Department of Industrial Relations, the state agency that runs contractor registration, project registration, prevailing wage determinations, and the eCPR system, and whose Labor Commissioner enforces all of it.
eCPR: Electronic Certified Payroll Record: California's required electronic filing of certified payroll, submitted directly to DIR at least monthly on non-exempt public works. Filed through DIR's portal by hand (the iForm) or by XML upload. See the eCPR system explained.
iForm: The manual data-entry path for eCPR filing: typing each worker, day, rate, and deduction into DIR's portal per project, per filing period.
eCPR XML: DIR's published file format for uploading certified payroll instead of typing it. Mainstream payroll systems do not produce it; making this file correctly is most of what certified payroll services and add-ons exist to do.
PWCR: Public Works Contractor Registration: the DIR registration every contractor and sub needs to work California public works, renewed annually. Your eCPRs file under it.
PWC-100: The project registration an awarding body files with DIR when it awards a public works project, listing the project, the location, and the contractors on it. PWC-100 filings are public data, which is what powers our requirements pages. See the PWC-100 explained.
Form A-1-131: California's own public works payroll reporting form, published by DLSE, the paper ancestor of the eCPR and still the shape of a certified copy when records are requested. See Form A-1-131 block by block.
DIR Project ID: The number DIR assigns a registered public works project. Every eCPR files against one, so collecting your projects' IDs is step one of any filing setup.
Awarding body: The public entity whose project it is: a school district, city, county, university, water district, transit agency, or state department. The awarding body sets the portal requirements and, in four legacy cases, holds the compliance program that changes your DIR duties.
WH-347: The federal certified payroll form for Davis-Bacon work, due weekly, with the Statement of Compliance on the back. See WH-347 line by line.
Statement of Compliance: The signed declaration attached to a weekly certified payroll, certifying correct payment and proper fringe handling, under penalty of federal prosecution. An unsigned certified payroll is just a spreadsheet.
Davis-Bacon Act: The federal prevailing wage law covering federally funded or assisted construction, the reason the WH-347 exists and is weekly.
Fringe benefits: The non-wage part of the prevailing wage package: health and welfare, pension, vacation and holiday, training. Payable to bona fide plans or as cash on the check, and your certified payroll must show which, correctly, in the right units. See the fringe benefit statement, with an example.
Worker classification: The craft and classification each worker is reported under on certified payroll, which sets the rate that applies. A worker who does two kinds of work in a week is reported under each, with the hours split. See worker classification on certified payroll, and the pages on owner operators and sole proprietors with no employees.
Overtime, shift, and holiday pay: Premium rates the prevailing wage determination sets for hours beyond the daily or weekly limits, for shifts, and for holidays, each of which certified payroll must show at the right rate. See overtime, shift, and holiday pay under prevailing wage.
LCPtracker: The most widely mandated third-party labor compliance portal among California awarding bodies. An LCPtracker upload answers the awarding body; it does not satisfy the state's eCPR duty. See LCPtracker vs DIR.
Elation Systems: A labor compliance portal used by awarding bodies including BART. Same rule as every portal: additive to the DIR filing, not a substitute.
PRISM: The compliance system the City of San Diego uses as its certified payroll system of record. Additive to the DIR filing.
OCPS: The City of Los Angeles' own online certified payroll system, run by its Bureau of Contract Administration, which bars substitutes. LA City is also a legacy LCP holder, which changes the DIR side.
Labor Compliance Program (LCP): An awarding body's DIR-approved in-house enforcement program. The state stopped approving new ones in 2011; projects under the four legacy programs (Caltrans, City of LA, LAUSD, Sacramento County) are generally exempt from the direct DIR eCPR filing. School districts run many of the programs a sub meets; see school district labor compliance programs.
Compliance Monitoring Unit (CMU): The DIR unit that reviews certified payroll on public works and sends audit letters when the records do not add up. See what to do with a CMU audit letter.
Noncompliance letter: A written notice from an awarding body, its compliance program, a prime contractor, or DIR that your certified payroll is late, missing, or wrong, with a deadline to cure. See what to do when one arrives.
Notice of Withholding of Contract Payments: The notice that contract payments are being held back over a prevailing wage or reporting violation, the point at which a paperwork problem becomes a cash problem. See the notice of withholding, explained.
Civil Wage and Penalty Assessment: The Labor Commissioner's formal assessment of unpaid wages and penalties on a public works project, which starts the clock on a request for review. See how to appeal a certified payroll penalty.
Debarment: Losing the right to bid on or work public works for a period after a prevailing wage violation. See prevailing wage debarment in California.
Flow-down clause: The contract language that passes the prime's public works duties, certified payroll included, down to each subcontractor. See flow-down clauses and certified payroll.
Records retention: How long certified payroll and its supporting records must be kept after a public works project. See how long to keep certified payroll records and the audit-ready recordkeeping checklist.
Labor Code 1771.4: The statute requiring contractors and subs to furnish certified payroll directly to the Labor Commissioner through DIR's electronic system, at least monthly, since 2016.
Labor Code 1776: The certified payroll records statute: keep accurate records, produce them within 10 days of a written request, or forfeit $100 per worker per calendar day, collectible from your progress payments. See Labor Code 1776 explained, subdivision by subdivision, and penalties explained.
Non-performance payroll: The filing that covers a week with no work on a project. Required so your payroll sequence has no gaps; the eCPR format supports it directly. See no work performed weeks.
Amendment: A corrected refiling of an already-submitted eCPR. In DIR's system an amendment must match the original filing's identifying fields, or it creates a new payroll instead of replacing the wrong one. See how to amend a certified payroll report.
Small project exemption: The contract size below which some public works duties do not apply. The thresholds differ by duty, so check each one. See project thresholds and the small project exemption.
DAS 140 and DAS 142: California apprenticeship forms: the DAS 140 notifies applicable apprenticeship committees of the contract, the DAS 142 requests dispatch of apprentices. Separate from certified payroll, with their own deadlines and penalties.
Progress payment: The periodic payment on a construction contract as work completes. On public works it doubles as the enforcement lever: certified payroll problems freeze it, which is usually how a paperwork issue first becomes a cash issue.

Skip the vocabulary test, first filing free