Apprentice to journeyman ratio calculator
California public works contracts in apprenticeable crafts carry an hourly ratio of apprentice work to journeyman work. This calculator applies the statutory floor and the rules that change the count, from Labor Code section 1777.5.
The rule
The ratio of work performed by apprentices to journeymen in a craft on a public work may be no higher than the ratio in the apprenticeship standards the contractor is bound by, and, except as the section provides, no lower than the statutory floor, which the section refers to as the 1 to 5 hourly ratio (subdivisions (g) and (j)). The ratio applies during any day or portion of a day when any journeyman is employed at the jobsite and is computed on the hours worked that day by those journeymen. Hours a journeyman works beyond eight in a day or 40 in a week are not used to calculate the ratio (subdivision (h)).
Enter straight time hours only. Overtime beyond eight hours a day or 40 a week is excluded from the ratio by statute. If your program's standards set a different ratio, enter that divisor.
The rules that change the count
- Program standards can be stricter. A contractor bound by a program's standards employs the number or ratio of apprentices those standards stipulate, but never less than the statutory floor (subdivision (i)).
- Overtime does not count. Journeyman hours beyond eight per day or 40 per week are excluded when computing the ratio (subdivision (h)).
- An exemption certificate exists. A contractor who shows it employs apprentices across all its contracts at an annual average of at least one hour of apprentice work for every five hours of journeyman work may be granted a certificate exempting it from the 1 to 5 hourly ratio on a given job (subdivision (j)). Other ratio adjustments and exemptions are set out in the section and in Title 8, section 230.1.
- Small contracts are out of scope. The section does not apply to contracts of general contractors, or of specialty contractors not bidding through a general or prime contractor, that involve less than $30,000 (subdivision (o)).
- Training contributions are separate. A contractor employing journeymen or apprentices in an apprenticeable craft also contributes to the California Apprenticeship Council for every hour worked; see CAC training fund contributions.
Where this shows up on certified payroll
Apprentices appear on the WH-347 and the eCPR with their own classification and rate, which comes from the apprentice wage schedule for the determination, not the journeyman rate. A ratio shortfall is visible on the certified payroll before anyone asks for it, because the hours by classification are right there. We check the classifications and the ratio on every file, and we prepare the DAS 140, the DAS 142, and the CAC-2 for the projects that need them.