Texas prevailing wage
State law, federal determinations, and how to find the rate that applies
- Texas has its own prevailing-wage law (Tex. Gov't Code Chapter 2258), with no contract-size threshold (no statutory minimum).
- The U.S. Department of Labor has 290 active federal Davis-Bacon wage determinations covering 254 Texas counties as of (latest revision date), each setting county rates by trade for federally funded construction.
- Market context: the average private construction worker in Texas earned $1,698/week (≈ $42.45/hour) in Q1 2026, rank #12 of 51 states, per the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages - an industry average, not a prevailing-wage rate.
Each contracting public body sets rates (its own survey or the federal Davis-Bacon rates) and enforces its own contracts; there is no state administering agency; maintenance excluded.
How to find the required rate
- State or locally funded project: rates come from the state labor agency under Tex. Gov't Code Chapter 2258.
- Federally funded project: find the county in the Texas 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: 172 · Heavy: 54 · Highway: 13 · Residential: 51 - every determination and the counties it covers are listed in the Texas wage-determination index, each with its full rate schedule mirrored. Service contracts: 89 active SCA determinations for Texas.
What construction actually pays here
Separate from any required rate: BLS data puts the average private construction wage in Texas at $1,698/week (+4.4% YoY) in Q1 2026 - details and history on Texas 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.