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California’s Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) requires that workers on public works projects — including construction inspection and materials testing — be paid no less than the prevailing wage rate for their craft and locality. FieldTime automatically applies the correct shift windows, night differentials, weekend premiums, holiday multipliers, and zone pay additions based on the project’s labor classification and geographic region. This means you don’t have to manually track which rate applies to each hour: FieldTime does it for you every time you run an audit.
Prevailing wage rules are set by the California DIR and may change. FieldTime is updated when DIR publishes new wage determinations.

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Supported Regions

FieldTime supports three DIR prevailing wage regions for construction inspection firms: Your project administrator assigns a region to each public works project when it is created in FieldTime. Once a region is set, all shift, premium, and holiday calculations for that project use the corresponding DIR determination automatically.

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Labor Classifications

Prevailing wage rules apply only to specific labor classification codes. FieldTime currently supports the following classifications for DIR-covered projects: If a timesheet entry carries one of these classification codes on a public works project, FieldTime automatically applies prevailing wage rules. Entries for non-prevailing-wage classifications are audited only against California Labor Code §510 and §512.

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Shift Windows and Night Differentials

DIR determinations define three shifts per region. FieldTime attributes each punch to a shift based on when the shift commences, then applies the applicable differential.
Shift-day rule: NorCal uses a special attribution rule. A shift that commences before 1:00 AM is attributed to the prior calendar day. A shift commencing on or after 1:00 AM on Saturday is treated as Saturday work for the entire shift. This rule (§04.03.00 of the NorCal determination) is applied automatically by FieldTime.

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Weekend Premium Rates

Work performed on Saturdays and Sundays on prevailing wage projects earns a premium multiplier over the base rate. Rates differ by region:
When FieldTime detects weekend work on a prevailing wage project, it creates a PW-SAT-PREMIUM or PW-SUN-PREMIUM finding in the DIR Reference category. These are informational — they confirm which premium rate applies and do not block submission.

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Holiday Premium

All three regions pay 2.0× (double-time) for work performed on DIR-recognized holidays. FieldTime checks each work date against the holiday calendar for the project’s region and creates a PW-HOLIDAY-PREMIUM finding whenever a holiday is detected.

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NorCal Holidays (8 total)

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SoCal Holidays (11 total)

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San Diego Holidays (11 total)

FieldTime computes both the actual holiday date and the observed date each year. If either the actual or the observed date falls on a day you worked, the holiday premium applies.

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Zone Pay

Certain San Diego County work locations carry an additional hourly supplement on top of the base prevailing wage rate. FieldTime applies zone pay automatically when a project is tagged with the applicable zone: Zone pay findings appear under the rule code PW-ZONE-PAY. If you believe a project’s zone assignment is incorrect, contact your project administrator to update the project settings.

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DIR Rate Determination Reference

Each prevailing wage timesheet entry is linked to a specific DIR wage determination by period code and effective date. FieldTime creates an informational DIR-DETERMINATION-REF finding (severity: INFO) on every prevailing wage timesheet to document which determination governed the rates for that pay period. This finding requires no action and is stored in the audit trail for compliance reporting.

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How FieldTime Applies Prevailing Wage Rules

1

Project setup

Your administrator creates a project in FieldTime and assigns it a region (NORCAL, SOCAL, or SD) and a labor classification code (LCI, CI, MT, MT2, or DRN). This is done once per project and does not require any action from you.
2

You clock in

When you punch in on a prevailing wage project, FieldTime records the clock-in time and the project’s region and classification. The shift window is determined by your start time.
3

Audit runs

When you click Run Audit on your timesheet, FieldTime checks each punch for: the applicable shift window and night differential, whether the day is a Saturday, Sunday, or DIR holiday, and whether the project location qualifies for zone pay. It then generates findings in the DIR Reference category to document each premium.
4

Review findings

Prevailing wage findings are primarily informational (INFO severity). Review them to confirm the correct premiums are applied. If you spot a discrepancy — for example, a Saturday punch that wasn’t recognized as such — check that your punch times are correct, then re-run the audit.
5

Submit

Once all blocking findings are resolved, submit your timesheet normally. Prevailing wage premium data flows to payroll with your timesheet for rate application.

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Prevailing Wage Rule Codes