Federal glossary · Metric
Prevailing wage is the hourly wage, benefits, and overtime determined by DOL for a specific area and trade. Required by Davis-Bacon Act (construction) and Service Contract Act (services). Published as Wage Determinations.
Example: The Simplified Acquisition Threshold or a fiscal-year budget measure.
Reference record · Sources: OMB budget guidance · Verified Jul 2, 2026 · Covers definition, governing source
Also known as
Prevailing wage is the hourly wage, benefits, and overtime determined by DOL for a specific area and trade. Required by Davis-Bacon Act (construction) and Service Contract Act (services). Published as Wage Determinations.
is a metric concept federal contractors and grant writers run into across solicitations, regulations, and award filings
Prevailing Wage is a measurement used in federal contract evaluation, source selection, oversight, or performance management. For example: Example: The Simplified Acquisition Threshold or a fiscal-year budget measure. Understanding Prevailing Wage matters because evaluators use metrics like it to compare proposals quantitatively, score past performance, set award-fee outcomes, and decide who gets the next option year. Contractors who track how Prevailing Wage is calculated — and what target values look like in their NAICS or service area — write proposals that are concrete and defensible instead of generic and easily dismissed. Prevailing Wage also has implications for contract administration: getting the calculation methodology wrong post-award is a common source of disputes and contracting-officer modifications. Pair Prevailing Wage with the related metrics above to see how the federal government composes evaluation criteria into source-selection narratives.
Example: The Simplified Acquisition Threshold or a fiscal-year budget measure.
Meaning in practice
Prevailing Wage is a measure used to score, compare, or track government activity.
Where you’ll see it
You will see it in evaluation criteria, dashboards, scorecards, reports, and oversight reviews. Example: Example: The Simplified Acquisition Threshold or a fiscal-year budget measure..
Common confusion
People often confuse the metric with the threshold or decision rule attached to it.
What to do next
Check how the metric is calculated before you compare records or opportunities.
No entity links are available yet.
No related questions are available yet.
Get notified when usage of Prevailing Wage changes in contracts or guidance.
Search active federal contracts and solicitations related to Prevailing Wage on Bureauify.
100M+ government records · 110+ gov/news sources · Sourced from official federal systems
