Connecticut certified payroll: who receives it and how often it is due

If a month's payroll is missing, or an agency or the Department of Labor (DOL) has written to you, start with the penalties section. Section 31-53(f) makes a missing or knowingly false certified payroll a felony.

Who receives Connecticut certified payroll

The contracting agency named in your contract receives it. Section 31-53(f)(2) says to submit it monthly, by mail, email or another method that agency accepts. The recipient changes with the project type:

The DOH packet is old: it has no revision date, its forms read "Rev. 2/2002", and its PDF metadata shows DECD as author and June 25, 2015 as the date. The current federal clause also says weekly. Confirm with DOH what your sponsor uses.

What DOL does receive

On award, the contractor certifies to DOL under oath the pay scale it and its subcontractors will use (31-53(e)); DOL's Contractors Wage Certification Form fits that certification, though it cites no statute. DOL does not post a project's initial rate schedule, so ask the contracting agency (DOL request page).

How often it is due: weekly records, monthly submission

You keep wage and hour records by work day and week (31-53(f)(1)). The statute's rule for the contracting agency is monthly submission (31-53(f)(2)), and DOL's article agrees. Weekly wording survives nearby: DOL's form is headed Weekly Payroll, section 31-53b(a) still says "weekly certified payroll form", and the HOME clause says to submit weekly. CTDOT's Form 819 requires a payroll for each week of the project but states no submission interval or due day, so it does not contradict the statute's monthly submission. The history note shows a 1993 act required weekly payrolls and Public Act 97-263 made it monthly.

Neither the statute nor the DOL form gives a due day. Ask the contracting agency, in writing, whether it wants weekly or monthly payrolls and which day. A general contractor may rely on a lower tier subcontractor's certification, but one that knowingly relies on a false certification is not exempt from section 53a-157a (31-53(f)). For federal jobs, see our WH-347 guide.

What happens if you miss it or get it wrong

Section 31-53 itself sets no late fee or grace period. But 31-53(f) applies subsections (a) and (b) of section 31-59 and sections 31-66 and 31-69 to it where they are not inconsistent with it: payroll inspection, three-year record keeping, and a $50 to $200 fine, each day a separate offense, for failing to keep records or furnish them on request (31-69(c), one of several penalty subsections in section 31-69). The sources read do not say how these apply to a late submission. File missing months now, and ask a Connecticut attorney how the felony provision applies to you.

On section 31-53 public works and section 31-54 highway contracts, each firm a general contractor engages must also give it, before work starts, a sworn affidavit that it does not hold an interest of ten percent or greater in a firm on the debarment list (31-53a(b)(3)).

What goes in the monthly package

The signed statement

The employer signs a statement of compliance. Section 31-53(f)(2) lists six things it must say: the records are correct, wages and fringe benefits meet the prevailing and contract amounts, the employer has complied with the applicable provisions of section 31-53, section 31-53c, subsection (f) of section 31-53d and section 31-54, each worker has workers' compensation coverage (carrier, policy number, dates), there are no kickbacks, and the employer is aware that filing a payroll it knows to be false is a class D felony. The contractor signs; nobody else certifies for you.

The DOL form's statement is dated by week ending, while the statute describes a statement accompanying the monthly certified payroll. Ask the agency whether it wants a statement for each week or one for the month.

Everyone who does the work

List hours and wages for every person doing mechanic, laborer or worker work, whatever the label: 31-53(f)(1) requires the records regardless of any contractual relationship alleged to exist between the contractor and the worker, which reaches a worker the contractor calls an independent contractor. DOL's two 2025 versions of its rate schedule notes differ on who they name. The earlier notes list owners, corporate officers, LLC members and independent contractors, and the updated notes list owners, corporate officers, LLC members and partners. Either way the statute turns on who performs the work, so list partners and any claimed independent contractors who do it. Since July 1, 2025, section 31-53(a) also reaches custom off-site fabrication in Connecticut of mechanical systems, including plumbing, heating, cooling, pipefitting, ventilation and exhaust duct systems, made for the project, excluding stock shelf items and readily available components. The updated notes put those workers on the payroll. DOL's prevailing wage page links the earlier notes under its 2026 heading and the updated notes under 2025, and section 31-53(a), effective July 1, 2025, governs off-site fabrication either way.

OSHA 10 cards, public record, no Social Security numbers

• Attach a copy of each worker's OSHA 10-hour card (or the statute's MSHA new-miner or telecommunications 10-hour alternative) to the payroll where the worker's name first appears (DOL form; 31-53b(a)). The statute requires this in state and town public works contracts described in 31-53(h), and the DOL form instructs it on its payroll form. The form's banner says to attach the card to the first certified payroll on the project, while item 2 on the form says the payroll on which the person's name first appears; follow your agency's instruction. The statutes read do not extend it to highway work under 31-54, DECD projects under 31-53c or covered energy projects under 31-53d, so check your contract. A plumber or electrician subject to the continuing education requirements of section 20-334d, whose card is five or more years old when work begins, also needs a four-hour refresher taught by a federal OSHA authorized trainer.
• Where the proof goes is unclear, and section 31-53b(a) names no recipient. CTDOT's August 2025 contract provisions say both: clause (c) says to furnish proof to the Labor Commissioner with the weekly payroll form, while item (8) of the bulletin in the same document says to affix the card to the payroll sent to the contracting agency. That bulletin is dated, covering public building contracts entered into on or after July 1, 2007. The DOL form says the contracting agency's payroll; follow it and ask your agency.
• A certified payroll is a public record anyone can inspect and copy (31-53(f)). DOL's form says not to include Social Security numbers.

The form number is WWS-CP1

The DOL PDF prints WWS-CP1 on the cover page and WWS-CP2 on continuation pages, with a footer date of 12/9/2013. DOL's article calls it WWS-CPI. Use the number printed on the form. The article says it can be completed online but describes no portal.

State highway work: CTDOT and AASHTOWare Project

Section 31-54 applies only to state highways and bridges on state highways, and 31-53(f) extends the monthly rule to those employers. Its own underpayment fine is not more than $200 for each offense (see the penalties table). Article 1.05.12 of Form 819 with the January 2026 supplement says that for each week of the project the contractor furnishes certified payrolls to the Engineer, subcontractors included. The article states no submission interval or due day. CTDOT's August 2025 contract provisions refer to section 1.05.12 (Payrolls) of the standard specification as Form 819, and CTDOT's manuals page lists Form 819 editions from 2024 to January 2026 and Form 818 editions through July 2023. Form 818 with its January 2023 supplement is an earlier edition, and the weekly-payroll wording in Article 1.05.12 is the same in both.

CTDOT runs AASHTOWare Project (AWP), and its AWP payroll page tells contractors ready to upload that they submit all certified payroll details there. A 2025 CTDOT Contract Compliance notice, headed "FHWA 1391 Report for 2025", shows how the department uses AWP data. That report is compiled from payroll submitted through AWP. For the pay period ending July 26, 2025, the notice asked primes and subcontractors on Connecticut federal-aid highway projects valued at $10,000 or more to have their certified payrolls in AWP by August 1. It suggested that districts consider holding back July payment estimates if they were not. The $10,000 figure and the deadline belong to that one report and pay period, not to AWP use in general. See our AASHTOWare guide and FHWA-1273 guide.

The same notice points to bulletin CB-2024-8 and a contract special provision titled "Mandated Use of AASHTOWare Project Construction Management Software". Neither could be read for this page, so the standing rule on who must use AWP and when was not seen. Article 1.05.12 of Form 819 and the August 2025 state-funded provisions do not mention AWP, so a state-funded-only contract is not shown to require it. Ask the project's CTDOT staff which specification edition, cadence and due day govern.

Does your job need it? Thresholds

Section 31-53 does not apply where the combined total cost or total bond authorization of all work by all contractors and subcontractors is under $1,000,000 for new construction, or the combined total cost is under $100,000 for remodeling, alteration or repair (subsection (h)(1)). The test is the whole project, not your subcontract. Those figures govern public works under 31-53. Section 31-54 states no threshold, and the sources read do not apply them to highway work. DOL's rate request page screens at $100,000, but the statute states the legal test. For applicability questions, DOL's prevailing wage page gives dol.prevailingwage@ct.gov.

The other recipients have limits. Section 31-53c counts financing of $1,000,000 or more for a project valued at not more than $10,000,000, and excludes 501(c)(3) and chamber of commerce organizations. Its subsection (f) separately covers only the pollution remediation, demolition or abatement part of a project funded by DECD, including for 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and that text states no $10,000,000 limit. Section 31-53d excludes projects approved before January 1, 2022 under certain solicitations or contracts and projects begun before July 1, 2021. Under 31-53d(g), prevailing wage requirements do not apply to a project under a project labor agreement; the text does not say whether that ends the payroll duty.

SB 356: an electronic filing bill

Substitute SB 356 of 2026 concerns electronic filing of certified payroll, and its summary says employers would submit electronically to the Labor Commissioner. The legislature's page lists its last action as Favorable Report, Tabled for the Calendar, Senate, on April 20, 2026, and no public act number. For other states, see our state requirements table.

Questions