Massachusetts prevailing wage
State law, federal determinations, and how to find the rate that applies
- Massachusetts has its own prevailing-wage law (M.G.L. c.149, §§26–27), with no contract-size threshold (all public works), administered by Massachusetts Dept. of Labor Standards (DLS).
- The U.S. Department of Labor has 24 active federal Davis-Bacon wage determinations covering 14 Massachusetts counties as of (latest revision date), each setting county rates by trade for federally funded construction.
- Market context: the average private construction worker in Massachusetts earned $2,148/week (≈ $53.70/hour) in Q4 2024, rank #1 of 51 states, per the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages - an industry average, not a prevailing-wage rate.
DLS issues project rate sheets; the Attorney General's Fair Labor Division enforces; no dollar minimum.
Official record finder
Find the federal determination for your project
Choose a county and construction type, then open the matching determination. This is a shortcut to the official record, not a wage quote.
Federal Davis-Bacon only. For state or locally funded work, start with the official Massachusetts schedule. The determination in the contract controls if this index and a contract ever differ.
How to find the required rate
- State or locally funded project: use the rate schedules from Massachusetts Dept. of Labor Standards (DLS) - official Massachusetts prevailing-wage portal.
- Federally funded project: find the county in the Massachusetts determination index and open the official SAM.gov document for your construction type.
- Read the classification line - base rate plus fringe (how to read a determination); compute totals and overtime with the calculator.
Federal determinations at a glance
Building: 4 · Heavy: 4 · Highway: 13 · Residential: 3 - every determination and the counties it covers are listed in the Massachusetts wage-determination index, each with its full rate schedule mirrored. Service contracts: 64 active SCA determinations for Massachusetts.
What construction actually pays here
Separate from any required rate: BLS data puts the average private construction wage in Massachusetts at $2,148/week (+5.5% YoY) in Q4 2024 - details and history on Massachusetts construction wages.
Learn the system
What a prevailing wage is · The Davis-Bacon Act · Certified payroll · Fringe calculator
Data on this page is from U.S. government public-domain sources - free to reuse with credit and a link to prevailingwageindex.com.