No Work Performed Weeks: Certified Payroll

Rain for a week, the other trades behind schedule, a gap between phases: every prevailing wage job has weeks when your crew is not on site. The question is whether that week still needs paperwork. Under federal rules the answer is no, but your agency may want something anyway, and it is worth knowing which is which before you skip a week.

What federal rules require

The federal requirement is tied to covered work, not to the calendar. Under 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(A), a contractor "must submit weekly, for each week in which any DBA- or Related Acts-covered work is performed, certified payrolls" to the contracting agency. No covered work that week means no certified payroll is due under that rule.

The Department of Labor said so directly when it revised the WH-347 in January 2025: "While the regulations do not require the submission of certified payrolls when no work is performed on sites, many agencies have their own documentation requirements for weeks in which no work is performed, in accordance with the needs of their programs." DOL also considered adding a space on the new form to note weeks with no work, and chose not to.

What agencies ask for

Because the federal rule leaves the gap open, agencies fill it differently. A few examples from their own published guides:

• HUD (Handbook 1344.1 REV-3): employers are not required to submit reports for weeks with no work on the site, "provided that the payroll reports are numbered sequentially or that the employer has provided written notice that its work on the project has been suspended."
• Montana DOT: "If a prime or subcontractor does not work on a project during any given week, a payroll is not required," and payroll numbers should stay consecutive for the life of the project.
• Kentucky's AMLER program: no certified payroll is needed for a no-work week; a signed Contractor No Work Statement is recommended, and the next payroll is numbered right after the last one submitted.
• Montana's CDBG program offers an optional signed Statement of No Work Performed that lists the weeks and their payroll numbers.

State prevailing wage rules can be stricter than the federal rule. Washington State DOT requires payrolls "for each week, even if no work is performed" on state-funded projects, and Caltrans requires No Work Certifications for non-performing weeks on state contracts. If your job is funded under a state program, read that program's rules, not just Davis-Bacon.

Payroll numbering around a no-work week

DOL's instructions say each weekly certified payroll "should be given a payroll number," beginning with 1, and its annotated guide says payrolls must be numbered sequentially and based on the weeks worked under the contract. Neither says whether a week with no work uses up a number, and agencies answer that differently. Montana DOT and Kentucky's AMLER program continue the sequence with the next payroll you actually submit. Montana's CDBG form instead asks for a payroll number for each no-work week. HUD does not require numbering at all, but encourages it, and treats sequential numbering as one way to show a gap was intentional. Ask your agency which approach it uses, then keep it consistent for the whole project so a reviewer can see nothing is missing.

What a no-work statement should include

When your agency wants a statement but does not supply its own form, a one-page document with these details covers what the published examples ask for:

• Your business name and address, and whether you are the prime contractor or a subcontractor
• The project name, location, and contract number
• The week ending date, and the payroll number if your agency counts no-work weeks
• A plain statement that no covered work was performed on the project that week
• The name, title, signature, and date of the person certifying it

The free No Work Performed statement builds exactly that page in your browser, and fills in your project details if you already started a WH-347 there. Sign only what is true for the week shown. When your crew is back on site, prepare that week's WH-347 in the free generator.