Form A-1-131: California's public works payroll reporting form

Q: Where do I get form A-1-131?

DIR publishes the current PDF at dir.ca.gov . DIR's public works page also lists DLSE district offices and the Division of Labor Statistics and Research's Prevailing Wage Unit in San Francisco as sources for the form.

Form A-1-131 is the "Public Works Payroll Reporting Form" published by the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), the paper format tied to the certified payroll records law at Labor Code section 1776. Most subs today file electronically as the eCPR instead of on this form, but its fields still define what a certified payroll record has to show, and the form itself has not gone away.

What form A-1-131 is

Form A-1-131 is a single-page columnar payroll sheet, printed front and back, that DIR makes available as its suggested format for certified payroll records. The legal hook is Labor Code section 1776(c): unless records go directly to the Labor Commissioner electronically under section 1771.4, "the certified payroll records shall be on forms provided by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement or shall contain the same information as the forms provided by the division." DIR's own public works page states the practical rule: the format is normally whatever form the public entity provides, but if a contractor does not comply, the Labor Commissioner may require DIR's suggested format, Form A-1-131, and any alternative format has to contain everything section 1776 requires. Printed at the bottom of the current form is its revision line, "Form A-1-131 (New 2-80)."

A-1-131 is not a separate filing on top of certified payroll. It is one accepted paper shape for the record every California public works contractor already keeps: name, address, social security number, classification, daily hours, rate, and a signed certification.

Where to get it

DIR publishes the current PDF directly at dir.ca.gov/dlse/forms/pw/dlseforma-1-131.pdf. The DIR public works page also lists DLSE district offices, and the Division of Labor Statistics and Research's Prevailing Wage Unit in San Francisco, as sources. Unlike the federal WH-347, which also has a browser-based online fillable version, A-1-131 has no web-form equivalent, DIR provides only the downloadable PDF. That PDF is itself a fillable AcroForm, with interactive text fields for every cell on the form, so it can be typed into directly in a PDF reader rather than printed and filled out by hand.

Form A-1-131, block by block

The header identifies the contractor and the job: name of contractor or subcontractor, address, contractor's license number, specialty license number, payroll number, the week ending date, self-insured certificate number, workers' compensation policy number, and the project or contract number and location. Below that, nine numbered columns repeat for each worker, in two rows, one for straight time (S) and one for overtime (O):

(1) Name, address, and social security number of employee. One combined field, unlike the WH-347's split name fields.
(2) Number of withholding exemptions. A field the current WH-347 no longer carries.
(3) Work classification. The craft the worker actually performed, matched to the applicable prevailing wage determination.
(4) Hours worked each day. Monday through Sunday, with a date row above the hours, split across the straight time and overtime lines.
(5) Total hours. Must reconcile with column 4.
(6) Hourly rate of pay. One rate column, unlike the WH-347's three-way split of base rate and fringe credit.
(7) Gross amount earned. Two sub columns, this project and all projects, for a worker with more than one job that week.
(8) Deductions, contributions, and payments. Thirteen labeled boxes: federal tax, FICA, state tax, State Disability Insurance, vacation and holiday, health and welfare, pension, training, fund administration, dues, travel and subsistence, savings, and an "other" line, plus a total. A footnote requires any other deduction or payment, whether or not a wage determination requires it, listed separately, on an extra sheet if needed.
(9) Net wages paid for the week, and check number.

The front page ends with a note that "CERTIFICATION MUST be completed," pointing to the back, titled "Notice to Public Entity, for Privacy Considerations," with an instruction to fold along a dotted line before copying for public release, since the certification sits below that fold. The certification is a fill-in perjury declaration: the signer gives their name and position, and certifies under penalty of perjury that the submitted records "are the originals or true, full, and correct copies of the originals which depict the payroll record(s) of the actual disbursements by way of cash, check, or whatever form to the individual or individuals named," followed by a date and signature line. A closing note lets a public entity require a stricter certification than this one.

How A-1-131 maps to the WH-347 and the eCPR

Subs doing federal Davis-Bacon work, or filing the state's electronic record, are tracking one set of payroll facts across three formats. Here is where each A-1-131 field lands in the other two, drawing on our WH-347 field by field guide and DIR eCPR system guide.

A-1-131 field	WH-347 equivalent	eCPR
(1) Name, address, SSN	1B to 1D: last name, first name, middle initial (1A is a sequential worker entry number, not a name field). 1E is a worker identifying number, the last four SSN digits or any other worker-specific identifier, since DOL's WH-347 instructions bar a full SSN. The WH-347 carries no worker address field at all.	Full name and the full nine-digit SSN, the opposite formatting rule, under the eCPR XML schema, which requires a 9 digit SSN and a name field id in SSN::NAME format; see eCPR XML upload errors
(2) Withholding exemptions	Dropped from the current form	Still a required field
(3) Work classification	Column 3, same concept	Same concept, checked against the California determination for the craft and county
(4), (5) Daily hours, total hours	Column 4 (days and hours) and column 5 (total hours)	Daily hours for the week ending date, straight and overtime
(6) Hourly rate	Split into 6A base rate, 6B fringe credit, 6C cash fringe	The eCPR XML schema has no hourly fringe-rate field; the only hourly-rate element is straight time, overtime, and doubletime pay. Fringe and benefit contributions (vacation and holiday, health and welfare, pension, training, fund administration, dues, travel and subsistence, savings) are instead reported as weekly dollar amounts, in the same deductionsContribPay block and using the same data structure as the federal tax, FICA, state tax, and SDI withholdings, not held apart as hourly figures. It does not preserve the WH-347's hourly 6B and 6C fringe-credit-rate structure.
(7) Gross, this project and all projects	7A this project, 7B all work that week	thisProject and allWork, the same split as columns 7A and 7B
(8) Deductions and contributions	Column 8, "Deductions for All Work," with a specified "other" line	Same categories, kept as separate fringe and deduction figures
(9) Net wages, check number	Column 9, net pay	Net wages for the period, plus a required check number field (or CASH)
Back page perjury certification	Page two Statement of Compliance	The review and sign step inside the DIR portal

When the paper form still applies, and when the eCPR replaces it

On an ordinary registered California public works project, you are not sending DIR a scanned A-1-131. You are filing the eCPR, the electronic duty under Labor Code section 1771.4, at least once every 30 days while work continues and within 30 days after the last day of work, with a penalty of $100 per day, capped at $5,000 per project, not levied until 14 days after a failure to furnish records. See how to submit certified payroll to DIR. That filing satisfies your duty to the Labor Commissioner, but it does not replace the separate record-production duties in section 1776, where A-1-131's format still matters:

A written records request under section 1776(d). An employee, an awarding body representative, DLSE, or a member of the public through the awarding body can ask for certified payroll records, and you have 10 days to produce a certified copy. Section 1776(c) governs its format: DLSE's form, or an alternative containing the same information. See our 10 day records request guide and the full Labor Code 1776 walkthrough for the redaction rules that apply first.
Two requesters the eCPR does not satisfy. Under section 1776(e), a multiemployer Taft-Hartley trust fund allocating contributions, and a joint labor management committee under the federal Labor Management Cooperation Act, are entitled to specific records that an electronic certified payroll copy does not satisfy; they get DLSE's form or its equivalent, even from a sub filing eCPR every week.
A contract that names A-1-131, or provides no form of its own. DIR treats A-1-131 as the fallback the Labor Commissioner may require once a contractor is not otherwise complying, not the first choice. Most awarding bodies specify their own form; where one does not, or where you have fallen out of compliance, A-1-131 fills the gap.

A-1-131 was never built for federal Davis-Bacon work with no California public works funding involved. That sits outside DIR's registration and eCPR framework and runs on the federal WH-347 instead. See WH-347 vs eCPR for which projects owe which filing, including the common case where both apply at once.

Questions

What is form A-1-131?

Form A-1-131 is DIR's "Public Works Payroll Reporting Form," a single-page paper format for certified payroll records tied to Labor Code section 1776. It is the Labor Commissioner's suggested format when a contractor does not otherwise comply with the certified payroll records law, per DIR's public works guidance.

Is form A-1-131 the same as certified payroll?

No. Certified payroll is the underlying record, name, address, social security number, classification, hours, rate, and a signed perjury certification, that section 1776 requires every contractor and subcontractor to keep. A-1-131 is one accepted paper format for that record; an alternative containing the same information satisfies section 1776(c) just as well.

Do I still need form A-1-131 if I file eCPR?

Not for your Labor Commissioner filing, which runs through the electronic eCPR under section 1771.4. But the A-1-131 format can still be what you owe in response to a section 1776 records request, and it is specifically what a Taft-Hartley trust fund or a joint labor management committee is entitled to instead of an electronic copy.

What is the difference between A-1-131 and WH-347?

A-1-131 is a California state form tied to Labor Code 1776, used on state and local public works. The WH-347 is the federal Davis-Bacon certified payroll form, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, used on federal or federally assisted construction. A project with federal money touching California public works can owe both. See WH-347 vs eCPR.

Where do I get form A-1-131?

DIR publishes the current PDF at dir.ca.gov. DIR's public works page also lists DLSE district offices and the Division of Labor Statistics and Research's Prevailing Wage Unit in San Francisco as sources for the form.

What form does California use for certified payroll?

Most California public works contractors today file the eCPR, DIR's electronic certified payroll record, directly through the state's portal. A-1-131 is the paper format behind the same legal requirement, still relevant for records requests and for the small set of requesters an electronic copy does not satisfy.