FDOT certified payroll: Form 700-010-69, the 7 day rule, and payroll violation notices

You received a Notification of Payroll Violation

The Resident Engineer or a designee issues a Notification of Payroll Violation, Form 700-010-59 when certified payrolls contain errors or omit required wage information (CPAM 5.4.8). The code on the notice decides what happens to your money.

Codes 3 to 6: the 20 day clock

The sources differ on when the 20 days start. CPAM 5.4.8 and EO manual 6.6.3 count the day the prime receives the notice as day one, and EO manual Tables 1.6.5.1 and 1.7.6.5 also run from receipt. Form 700-010-59 counts from the date beside its signatures. A notice dated November 1 and received November 4 runs to November 21 by the form and to November 23 by receipt, so calendar the earlier date.

Proof of payment can be a canceled check, a pay stub or the worker's signed affidavit (CPAM 5.4.8; EO manual 6.6.3). If you cannot find the worker, you still owe the money, paid to the USDOL Wage and Hour Division (6.6.4).

Code 1: Form 700-010-54 and the 60 day appeal

On Code 1, CPAM 5.4.8 assesses $10.00 per day plus the additional gross wages due, and the form's note makes the penalty per violation per day for each employee within one payroll week. The Resident Engineer's letter attaches Form 700-010-59 and Form 700-010-54, FDOT's memo to its Disbursement Operations office listing what to withhold or release. You do not complete it.

Your deadline. CPAM and Form 700-010-59 give no Code 1 deadline: CPAM's sample letter leaves a close-of-business date blank, and the form's 20 day sentence covers notices where no penalty has been assessed. EO manual Tables 1.6.5.1 and 1.7.6.5 do apply 20 calendar days from receipt to supplemental payrolls on any Form 700-010-59. Use the date in the Resident Engineer's letter, and if it has none, treat 20 days from receipt as your deadline. If FDOT and you cannot agree, the FHWA Division Administrator decides, and you may appeal to the Federal Highway Administrator, the Secretary of Labor or the Court of Claims, through FDOT, within 60 days of receiving the formal withholding notice by email.

The penalty amount conflicts. CPAM and the form say $10. FHWA-1273 (revised June 25, 2026), Section IV paragraph 2, ties liquidated damages for each laborer or mechanic, for each calendar day over 40 hours, to 29 CFR 5.5(b)(2), and the eCFR text reads $33. Ask the Resident Engineer in writing which figure applies.

What a missing or late payroll triggers

A violation letter issues when you worked on the project but sent no payroll for the week, the payroll is not received within 7 days of its regular payment day, or the Statement of Compliance is wrong or incomplete (EO manual 6.6.2). The escalation in EO manual 1.6 and Tables 1.6.5.1 and 1.6.5.2 runs on windows of 7 business days, then 7 business days, then release on verification:

1. Non-Receipt Payroll Letter. It can issue any day and is not held for the monthly notice (1.6.5). It is due 7 business days after issue.
2. Performance Deficiency Warning Letter, including Notice of Intent to Withhold the Monthly Progress Estimate. It issues the first business day after that due date, with 7 more business days to respond.
3. Performance Deficiency Letter, including Notice of Withholding. The Resident Engineer signs it, and it issues the first business day after the warning period. The data is due at the contractor's discretion, and FDOT releases the estimate on receipt and verification.

The project's whole monthly progress estimate is withheld, and later ones too until the deficiency is resolved. Resolving it does not erase it: it can lower the prime's performance rating (1.6.3).

FDOT's 2026 Table 1.6.5.3 (updated January 27, 2026) is the monthly calendar from the Notice of Noncompliance to the Warning Letter and Performance Deficiency Letter. For a missing payroll that is still outstanding after the Non-Receipt Payroll Letter's 7 business day due date, the warning issues the first business day after that due date (Table 1.6.5.1 rows E to G). The table's Notice of Noncompliance column covers DBE, EEO and OJT, not payroll letters, which carry their own dates (1.6.5).

What CPAM 5.4.11 says about withholding

Both documents are current on FDOT's site: the CPAM index lists section 5.4, and EO manual 6.1.2 points to the latest CPAM. CPAM 5.4.11(1) lets the Resident Engineer withhold the monthly progress estimate, after advance written notice, when a contractor keeps ignoring requests for payrolls or forms. It names a subcontractor's pro rata share first, while the EO manual withholds the whole estimate.

The 7 day rule

Payrolls are due for every week in which any contract work is performed. CPAM 5.4.6 and EO manual 6.5.12 set the deadline at seven days after the regular payment date, calendar days under the EO manual. The prime must assure that all payrolls are submitted, including those of subcontractors, rental companies (for agreements with operators) and temporary employment agencies (6.5.12), so ask your prime how it gets yours to FDOT. 29 CFR 3.4(a) sets the same 7 days. Warranty work after final pay-off also needs certified payroll for craft and laborer workers who spend more than 20% of their workweek on the site of the original work (6.5.11).

Form 700-010-69 or WH-347

CPAM 5.4.7 says each payroll comes with the WH-347 or Form 700-010-69, or an equivalent document with all the information USDOL requires. Our WH-347 guide covers the federal form. Form 700-010-69 is FDOT's Wage and Hour Record: a payroll record plus a signed Statement of Compliance (EO manual 6.5.15). For a classification missing from the wage determination, see FDOT's Classification Request Manager (CPAM 5.4.10) and our SF-1444 guide.

How you submit and sign

CPAM 5.4.7 says FDOT requires electronic submission, to the Resident Engineer or a designee (5.4.6). On select major projects, FDOT requires an electronic payroll system, according to its 2022 FHWA 1273 workshop Q&A, which names Elation and LCPtracker and says that in Florida even voluntary adoption of one requires its exclusive use. Emailing PDFs is the wrong channel there. The Q&A points to the contract specification as the source, so check yours. Our Elation guide covers that system, and FDOT's undated Contract Compliance FAQ adds that some districts are advocating a statewide payroll system.

The sources differ on signatures:

Every source accepts an electronic signature, and the FAQ and EO manual also accept an original handwritten one. Only a scan divides them, so sign electronically or in original ink and do not send a scan. A signing certificate must come from an approved certificate authority (CPAM 5.4.6). You, or your agent who pays or supervises payment, sign the Statement of Compliance.

Which jobs this covers

EO manual Table 1.7.6.5 marks certified payrolls YES for prime contractors, subcontractors, rental agreements with operators and agencies supplying job site workers on federally funded contracts, and NO for suppliers, rentals without operators and every state-funded column. Wage requirements are in every federally funded FDOT contract of $2,000 or more (6.1.2). Florida's minimum wage, $15.00 an hour from September 30, 2026 per Florida Commerce, applies on all FDOT projects, federal or state funded (CPAM 5.4.4; EO manual 6.1.3).

Florida law bars the state and local governments from requiring a predetermined wage on public works they fund, except as required by federal or state law (255.0992(2)(b)), and does not apply to contracts executed under chapter 337, which includes FDOT's contracting authority. FHWA ended its rule requiring FHWA-1273 to be physically incorporated into contracts on June 10, 2026, but did not exempt contractors from the underlying requirements (our guide). For other states, see the state-by-state guide.

Local roads and local agency jobs

FHWA-1273 Section III exempts roadways classified as local roads or rural minor collectors, except where applicable law requires a project to be treated as a Federal-aid highway project, such as Surface Transportation Block Grant projects under 23 U.S.C. 133 (excluding recreational trails projects). On Local Agency Program (LAP) jobs, EO manual 1.7.7 says projects off the Federal-Aid Highway, National Highway System and State Highway System have no Davis-Bacon or Copeland requirement, except Safe Routes to Schools, Non-motorized Transportation Pilot Projects, and high priority and other congressionally designated projects. LAP contractors may follow either the local agency's forms and reporting requirements or FDOT's, and the local agency tells them which. This page covers FDOT-administered contracts, so on a LAP job ask the agency what applies.

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