Certified Payroll Records: What to Keep and for How Long

David Gul · Last updated September 18, 2026

The certified payroll you submit each week is a summary. The regulation, 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(i), requires the contractor to maintain payrolls and basic records for every laborer and mechanic during the work and for at least three years after all the work on the prime contract is completed, and those records hold more than the form does: the worker’s full name, Social Security number, address, phone number and email, the work classifications, the hourly rates paid, the daily and weekly hours worked, the deductions made, the actual wages paid, and for fringe benefits paid to plans, the plan’s records and the contributions. Apprentice registrations and any approvals for unusual deductions belong with them. The agency keeps the certified payrolls it received for the same three years.

The two sets of records

Record	Who holds it	How long	What is in it
Certified payrolls (Form WH-347 or equivalent)	Submitted to the agency; the contractor keeps its copies	Three years after all work on the prime contract is completed	The weekly payroll with four-digit identifying numbers, no addresses, and the signed Statement of Compliance
Payroll and basic records	The contractor and each subcontractor	Three years after all work on the prime contract is completed	Full identifying details, classifications, rates, daily and weekly hours, deductions, wages paid, fringe plan records, apprentice and trainee registrations, and the written consents behind deductions

The split exists because the 2023 rule change took Social Security numbers and addresses off the weekly submission. The contractor still has to have them, and still has to produce them when the Department of Labor or the contracting agency asks.

What the basic records must contain

• Name, Social Security number, and the last known address, telephone number and email address of each worker.
• Each worker’s correct classification or classifications.
• Hourly rates of wages paid, including the rates of contributions or costs anticipated for bona fide fringe benefits or the cash equivalents paid instead.
• Daily and weekly number of hours worked, in total and on the covered contract.
• Deductions made, and actual wages paid.
• For fringe benefits met through a plan: the written records showing the commitment to provide the benefits, that the plan is financially responsible, that it has been communicated in writing to the workers, and the costs anticipated or the actual costs incurred.
• For apprentices and trainees: the written evidence of the registration of the program and of each individual, the ratios and wage rates the program prescribes.

Producing them

The records must be made available for inspection, copying or transcription by authorized representatives of the contracting agency and the Department of Labor, and the contractor must permit them to interview workers during working hours on the job. Failure to submit the required records, or to make them available, may be grounds for debarment, and the contracting officer may withhold payment until they are produced. Since the same clause makes the prime responsible for its subcontractors’ compliance, a prime that cannot obtain a subcontractor’s records has the same problem.

Keeping the certified payroll reproducible

An audit three years after the last day on site asks a specific question: what did payroll 14 say when it was signed. A payroll that was recomputed when a rate changed, or that lives in a spreadsheet where last year’s cells were typed over, cannot answer it. Whatever produces the form should keep each approved payroll exactly as filed, and the PDFs that were actually submitted should be kept alongside.

A practical retention list

1. Every certified payroll as submitted, numbered, with its Statement of Compliance, as a PDF.
2. The payroll register behind it, with the full worker details the form omits.
3. The wage determination as incorporated in the contract, and each modification with its date.
4. Apprentice and trainee registrations, and the program’s ratio and rate schedule.
5. Fringe plan documents and contribution records.
6. Signed, dated deduction consents, and any Secretary of Labor approvals.
7. Corrected payrolls and the restitution records that go with them.

All of it for three years after all work on the prime contract, not three years after your part of it ended.

More in this series: What Form WH-347 Is, Who Files It, and How Often · The Statement of Compliance on Form WH-347: What Signing It Asserts · All certified payroll guides