Do you have to hire apprentices on a California public works job?

The answer in three lines

• Hire them. Keep apprentice hours at one fifth of your journeyman hours, craft by craft, on straight time only, per the Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) FAQ.
• Tell the programs. Send the DAS 140, or a written notice with the same information, within 10 days of signing your contract, and no later than the first day you have workers on the job (8 CCR 230).
• Ask for them. Send the DAS 142 dispatch request, or a written request with the same information, at least 72 hours before you need an apprentice, not counting Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays (8 CCR 230.1). The regulation calls the DAS 142 an optional form.

DIR's own page words the last deadline as three business days, so give it three full business days. Training fund contributions are a separate duty under section 1777.5(m); see our CAC guide.

The $30,000 line does not save a small sub

Subdivision (o) of section 1777.5 carves out two kinds of contract under $30,000: a general contractor's contract, and a specialty contractor's contract that was not bid through a general or prime contractor. A subcontractor working under a prime is in neither group. Subdivision (d) says "contractor" includes "any subcontractor under a contractor who performs any public works not excluded by subdivision (o)." DIR says it plainly: the duty applies to all contractors and subcontractors on a project, even if their part is less than $30,000.

Say you hold a $22,000 electrical subcontract on a $400,000 city job. You owe the DAS 140, the DAS 142, and the ratio. The same $22,000 contract signed directly with the city, as a specialty contractor, sits inside the (o) carve-out. Other dollar lines are in prevailing wage project thresholds.

Who does not have to hire apprentices

DIR lists most of these in the DAS FAQ and in its eCPR FAQ. Where a row rests on the statute or on a different DIR page, the row says so.

An individual contractor certificate under subdivision (j) or a program certificate under subdivision (k) relieves you from the ratio alone. For some crafts and regions DAS has also issued minimum ratio letters that state the ratio as a headcount instead of hours. Operating Engineers: 1 apprentice per 4 journeymen in Northern California, 1 per 5 in Southern California. Teamsters in Southern California: 1 per 5. Laborers follow separate letters for each region, covered next. Read the letter for your craft and region. You still send the DAS 140. That page is dated April 2017, so confirm a letter is current.

The Laborers rule differs by region, and the letters set it, not the summary page. In Northern California, the DAS letter of July 25, 2014 says participating contractors employing four or fewer journey-level Laborers on a public works jobsite "shall not be required to hire an apprentice; however, the fifth (5th) Laborer employed shall be an apprentice." In Southern California, the Laborers Southern California exemption form says no apprentices are required on any day when there are three or fewer laborer journeypersons on a public works project, and the employer "must have an apprentice on any day where there are more than three journeypersons." So the first apprentice is due at the fifth Laborer in Northern California and at the fourth in Southern California.

Neither exemption is open to everyone. The Northern California letter covers affiliated employers approved to train apprentices by the Northern California Laborers Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee. The Southern California exemption covers only eligible participating contractors that appear on the list the Laborers Southern California Apprenticeship Program gave the Administrator of Apprenticeship, and the Program signs the form while the Administrator approves it. The 2012 form text says the Program issues it for no more than one year at a time, but the list at the end of the same PDF, printed 07/09/2026, shows terms running 07/01/2026 to 06/30/2030. Look for your company on that list and confirm with the Program. A contractor outside those groups is not covered.

DAS says none of these gets you out of it: a job under 40 hours, a non-union shop, or workers from a temp agency.

How the 1 to 5 ratio works

Subdivision (g) sets the floor: never less than one hour of apprentice work for every five hours of journeyman work. Subdivision (h) leaves out journeyman hours beyond eight a day or 40 a week, and has you reach the apprentice hours before the end of your contract, or your subcontract. DAS counts it per craft, on straight time, at the end of the project. You cannot cover one craft with another craft's apprentices, and premium pay is not the same as overtime pay.

DIR's example: 100 journeyman hours in a craft means 20 apprentice hours in that craft. Here is the same math for a sub with two crafts (our illustration, not DIR's):

Check your own numbers in the apprentice ratio calculator. Only apprentices registered with an approved program count, and you pay them the prevailing apprentice rate (section 1777.5(b) and (c)). A relative or employee still learning the trade does not count unless a program registered them.

What to send, and when

1. Find the programs. DAS has a search by county and craft. If you are not already approved to train, you send to every program that covers the jobsite, for each craft.
2. Send the DAS 140. You complete and sign it, then send it to the programs, not to DAS; both forms say so. A written notice with the same information also meets 8 CCR 230.
3. Send the DAS 142. It must be in writing, sent by first class mail, fax, or email, one craft per form. The form is optional under 8 CCR 230.1(a), so a written request with the same information works. If a program sends nobody, ask the others and keep every reply. Step 4 adds the mailing rules.
4. Keep proof. 8 CCR 229(d)(1) applies to both the DAS 140 notice and the dispatch request. If you mail one, it calls for first class and certified mail, return receipt requested, and you keep the postal receipts. For fax, keep the confirmation that it was received and the date. For email, keep the dated email. In a review of a penalty you carry the burden of proving the notice was on time (8 CCR 229(d)(2)).
5. Report your hours. Within 60 days after you finish, section 1777.5(e) has you send the program a verified statement of journeyman and apprentice hours, and the awarding body too if it asks.

Late paperwork does not repair a miss. DAS says forms sent after the project ends still leave you out of compliance. For counting penalty days under Labor Code section 1777.7, 8 CCR 230 treats contract award information that you knew about and did not provide as a continuing violation until the awarding body files a Notice of Completion. Form details: DAS 140 and DAS 142 guide.

What skipping it costs

If the Labor Commissioner finds a knowing violation, Labor Code section 1777.7 sets a penalty of up to $100 for each full calendar day. A second or subsequent knowing violation within three years rises to up to $300 a day if the noncompliance results in apprenticeship training not being provided as the chapter requires. Those are ceilings: 60 days at the first rate is at most $6,000. From January 1, 2027, SB 909 raises the $100 and $300 ceilings to $140 and $420 (what SB 909 changes). The Commissioner can reduce the amount or, on a first violation with a program's concurrence, order equivalent apprentice work instead. A knowing, serious violation can also bar you from public works contracts for up to one year, or up to three years for a second or subsequent violation, under Labor Code section 1777.1(d).

Your general contractor is watching too. Under section 1777.7(e), a prime avoids penalty for your violation only if it did not know of it and did four things: put copies of Labor Code sections 1771, 1775, 1776, 1777.5, 1813 and 1815 in your subcontract, monitor your apprentice use including your certified payroll, take corrective action when it sees a shortfall (which can include retaining funds due to you until the shortfall is corrected), and get a signed declaration under penalty of perjury before final payment that you employed the required apprentices. Expect that request. See flow-down clauses and GC liability for sub violations.

Where apprentices show up in your payroll

Labor Code section 1776 has you keep the work classification, straight time and overtime hours each day and week, and pay for each journeyman, apprentice, and worker, so the hours the ratio needs are hours you already report (Labor Code 1776 explained).

WellStanding is a done-for-you filing service. WellStanding prepares the federal WH-347 and the eCPR from the payroll export you already run, and a person reviews every filing. You review the finished filing and sign the certification in one step, and nothing is filed until you have signed. The certification is always yours; we never sign for you. That follows Labor Code section 1776(a), which has each payroll record verified by a written declaration under penalty of perjury, and 8 CCR 16401(b), whose certification wording is signed by someone with authority to act for the contractor (see who signs certified payroll). We do not prepare or send the DAS 140 or DAS 142. Those go from you to the apprenticeship programs (DAS 140 and DAS 142 guide). Setup is $995 one time, then $249 per month for crews up to 25 workers or $449 for 26 to 50. First filing free.

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