How to Read an SCA Wage Determination

David Gul · Last updated November 3, 2026

ExcelGurus is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. General Services Administration or any other federal agency. This guide describes the regulations, clauses and decisions it cites as read on November 3, 2026; they change, so check them, the clauses in your own contract and its current wage determination before you rely on it. It is not legal advice.

An SCA wage determination is the Department of Labor’s list of minimum hourly rates for each service occupation in an area, followed by the fringe benefits every listed occupation receives: health and welfare, vacation and holidays. Read it from the top: the number and revision identify it, the state and area say where it applies, the occupation table gives each classification’s rate by its five-digit code, and the notes that follow cover executive order paid sick leave and minimum wage, footnoted occupations such as computer employees, hazardous pay, uniforms and the SF-1444 conformance process. The duties your employees perform, not their job titles, decide which occupation applies. EG SCA Wage Pack (52.222-43), an Excel workbook from ExcelGurus, reads a wage determination you fetch from SAM.gov by its number and revision and lists any line it could not place, so you check what was read before you use it.

The parts at a glance

Every Department of Labor wage determination issued for an area runs in the same order. The examples below are from wage determination 2015-4281, Revision 39, which covers the District of Columbia and nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia.

Three kinds of wage determination

Standard (area-wide). The most common kind, built from Bureau of Labor Statistics survey data and updated about once a year. The Department of Labor’s own training presentation gives the signs: a number starting with 2015 followed by 4000 or 5000, nearby counties, and more than 300 occupations. Standard wage determinations list the same 366 occupations in 21 groups (every active one did when we checked them all on October 30, 2026); only the rates and benefits differ.

Non-standard. Written for a kind of service rather than a whole area, often statewide, regional or nationwide, with a number that starts with the year it was first issued. Some describe the work at the top (“Employed on …”), and some list occupations that are not in the SCA Directory of Occupations.

Based on a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Where the predecessor contractor’s employees worked under a CBA, the successor owes at least its wages and fringe benefits. The Department of Labor issues a short-form wage determination that names the parties, the area and the work, and, in its presentation’s words, “does not list wages”: the CBA itself is the rate sheet, and the contracting officer has it. The successor and CBA guide covers these.

The header: number, revision and date

The box at the top names the wage determination (2015-4281), the revision (39) and the date of last revision (8/22/2026). Your contract names the wage determination and revision that apply to it, so check both against the contract or the option modification. Two things surprise people. Revision numbers can skip: 2015-4281 went from revision 30 to revision 32, and there is no revision 31. And the date printed in the text can be a few days earlier than the date SAM.gov shows the revision as published.

State and area

The area lists counties by state. On Virginia wage determinations some names carry an asterisk that the text does not explain, such as Fairfax* beside Fairfax: the asterisk falls on Virginia’s independent cities, which are counted apart from the county of the same name. New England wage determinations list towns instead of whole counties. If your place of performance is not in the area, ask the contracting officer before you rely on the rates.

The occupation table

Each line is a five-digit occupation code, the title, an optional footnote mark such as (see 1), and the minimum hourly wage, with no dollar sign. Codes ending in 000 are group headings with no rate, such as 11000 - General Services And Support Occupations. A long title wraps onto a second line, and on current revisions the rate sits on the last line: 30010 - Air Traffic Control Specialist, Center (HFO) shows 53.25 at the end of its second line. Older revisions put the rate on the first line instead.

The title is a label, not the test. A note at the end of every standard wage determination says that “it is not the job title, but the required tasks” that decide whether a class is covered, and 29 CFR 4.152(b) says the duties an employee actually performs govern the classification and the rate. The duties behind each title are in the SCA Directory of Occupations, Fifth Edition (Revision 1), September 2015, which the wage determination names and the Department of Labor publishes on its guidance page. When no listed occupation fits the work, the answer is a conformance: the conformance guide sets out the SF-1444 steps.

Occupations with no rate

Two kinds of line have no rate. Computer occupations marked (see 1) often show none: on 2015-4281 Rev 39 all seven computer programmer and systems analyst lines are blank, while on 2015-5619 Rev 30 (Stanislaus County, California) Computer Programmer I shows 27.07. Footnote 1 explains why, and is covered below. On a few wage determinations an occupation is listed with no rate and no mark because another wage determination covers it; an OCCUPATION NOTE near the top says which, as the Los Angeles County wage determination does for laundry occupations.

The executive order notes

After the table come two notes. The first says that Executive Order 13706 applies to SCA contracts awarded (and any solicitation issued) on or after January 1, 2017, and that a covered contractor provides 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 56 hours a year. The second says that Executive Order 13658 generally applies to contracts awarded from January 1, 2015, to January 29, 2022, that have not been renewed or extended since January 30, 2022, and sets its minimum: at least $13.65 an hour from May 11, 2026, through December 31, 2026, or the wage determination’s rate if that is higher. The rate is adjusted each year.

Wage determinations revised in 2025 also carried a note on Executive Order 14026 ($17.75 an hour in 2025). That order was revoked on March 14, 2025, the Department of Labor says it no longer enforces it, and current revisions no longer carry the note. The executive order guide sets out which order reaches which contract.

The benefits: health and welfare, vacation, holidays

The benefits block opens with “ALL OCCUPATIONS LISTED ABOVE RECEIVE THE FOLLOWING BENEFITS”. It applies to every occupation in the table.

Health and welfare. Two rates are printed. On revisions since August 2026: $5.92 an hour, up to 40 hours a week, or $236.80 a week, or $1,026.13 a month; and, for a contract also covered by EO 13706 (one that includes FAR 52.222-62), $5.42 an hour, $216.80 a week or $939.46 a month. The note under them adds that paid sick leave given under EO 13706 cannot be credited toward SCA obligations. Hawaii wage determinations print further rates for employees covered by the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act. The health and welfare guide covers which hours earn it and why it is never averaged.

Vacation. The tiers are written out: on 2015-4281, 2 weeks of paid vacation after 1 year of service, 3 weeks after 5 years and 4 weeks after 15 years. Schedules differ by area (we counted 25 different ones among standard wage determinations; 3 weeks after 8 years is the next most common), so read yours. The paragraph also says that service counts with the present contractor and with predecessor contractors doing similar work at the same federal facility. The vacation guide covers vesting and the deadline to give it.

Holidays. The count is written as a word, then the holidays are named. Most standard wage determinations name eleven, Juneteenth and Columbus Day among them; some name ten, twelve, thirteen or fourteen, adding days such as Good Friday or Christmas Eve. A contractor may substitute another paid day off for a named holiday under a plan communicated to the employees. The holiday pay guide covers who earns each one.

The footnotes and standard notes

• 1) Computer employees. The wage determination does not apply to anyone employed in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity under 29 CFR Part 541. Computer systems analysts and programmers paid at least $27.63 an hour, or $684 a week on salary, are likely exempt if their primary duty is one of the four listed. That is why some computer lines carry no rate, and the footnote says a conformance is needed for nonexempt employees in those job families.
• 2) Air traffic controllers and weather observers. A night differential of 10% of basic pay for regular-tour hours between 6 pm and 6 am, and a Sunday premium of 25% for a full-time employee whose regular week includes Sunday.
• Hazardous pay differential. 8% for a high degree of hazard and 4% for a low degree, near ordnance, explosives and incendiary materials, and only for work the agency has specifically designated for that pay.
• Uniform allowance. Required uniforms are furnished free or their cost is reimbursed, and cleaning left to the employee is reimbursed at $3.35 a week (67 cents a day) unless the uniforms are wash-and-wear or a bona fide CBA sets another amount (29 CFR 4.168(b)).
• Directory of Occupations. The duties of each listed title are those in the Directory’s Fifth Edition (Revision 1), dated September 2015.
• SF-1444. The conformance process for an occupation the table does not list, in six steps, ending with a copy of the decision for each affected employee.

Which revision applies to your contract

A wage determination is fixed into a contract, not looked up fresh each payday. Under FAR 52.222-43(c), the one “current on the anniversary date of a multiple year contract or the beginning of each renewal option period” applies, and 29 CFR 4.161 says the contract’s rates continue to apply throughout the period. The agency incorporates the new revision when it exercises an option. For this purpose the agency receives a revision on the first day SAM.gov publishes it, and a revision received after the modification does not count if performance starts within 30 days of it (FAR 22.1012-1). A revision published later belongs to a later period. When a new revision raises your rates at an option, the 52.222-43 price adjustment guide explains what the contract price adjustment covers.

Getting clean text to read

Read the wage determination from SAM.gov itself: each wage determination’s page there has a Download button that gives the text as a .txt file, the same text the page shows. Copies attached to solicitations are often PDFs printed from a browser or scanned, and those can carry page headers and footers, or scanning errors that move a rate onto the wrong line. If a rate in a PDF looks out of place, compare it with SAM.gov’s text for the same number and revision.

Sources

Primary sources, as read on November 3, 2026. They change; the current versions are the ones that count.

• Wage determination 2015-4281, Revision 39 (August 22, 2026) (sam.gov), the full text, the source of every example and quote from a wage determination here
• Wage determination 2015-5619, Revision 30 (August 27, 2026) (sam.gov), the computer occupations’ rates
• FAR 52.222-43, Fair Labor Standards Act and Service Contract Labor Standards, Price Adjustment (www.acquisition.gov), FAC 2026-01, paragraph (c)
• FAR 52.222-41, Service Contract Labor Standards (www.acquisition.gov), paragraph (c)(2), conformance
• FAR 22.1012-1, Prevailing wage determination (www.acquisition.gov), when a revised wage determination counts
• 29 CFR Part 4 (www.ecfr.gov), sections 4.152(b), 4.161 and 4.168(b)
• U.S. Department of Labor, SCA WDs and Conformances (PDF) (www.dol.gov), the kinds of wage determination, and the short form for a CBA
• U.S. Department of Labor, Service Contract Act guidance (www.dol.gov), links the SCA Directory of Occupations, Fifth Edition
• SCA Directory of Occupations, Fifth Edition (PDF) (www.dol.gov)
• U.S. Department of Labor, Government contracts minimum wage (www.dol.gov), the revocation of Executive Order 14026

More Service Contract Act guides: FAR 52.222-43 Price Adjustments for Service Contract Act Contractors · SCA Health and Welfare: The 2026 Rate and the Hours That Earn It · The SCA Price Adjustment Letter: What a 52.222-43 Notice Says · Common SCA Payroll Mistakes, and How to Catch Them · SCA Holiday Pay: Who Earns It, How Much, and a Holiday Worked · SCA Vacation: Service, Vesting and the Deadline to Give It · Successor Contractors and CBA Wage Rates Under the SCA · SCA Conformance: When an Occupation Is Not on the Wage Determination · Service Contract Act vs. Davis-Bacon: Which Applies, and What Changes · Executive Order Minimum Wage and Paid Sick Leave on SCA Contracts · All SCA guides