Blogs

By: Deborah Wilder, President, Contractor Compliance and Monitoring, Inc.

AB 538 (Berman), signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 11, 2025, imposes new obligations on special districts and other public agencies that award public works contracts.

Starting January 1, 2026, upon receiving a request from the public for certified payroll records (CPRs) on a prevailing wage public works project, the public agency must solicit the CPRs from its contractor, redact appropriate information, and make them available to the requesting entity.

A contractor must comply with requests for CPRs within 10 days of receiving written notice from a public agency that awarded their contract. If a contractor or subcontractor fails to comply within that time-period, the public agency must notify the California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) who may request penalties be withheld from progress payments. The DLSE has 18 months after completion of the project to issue any findings and penalties, So, the project may be complete and paid in full before the DLSE acts. In that Instance, the DLSE will seek enforcement directly against the prime contractor and any applicable subcontractors

Current Law

Under current law, a member of the public, or a watchdog group or other individual can request copies of CPRs on a prevailing wage project. The person or entity requesting must clearly identify the contractor and the dates of the certified payroll. A public agency, however, does not have to provide all certified payrolls from all contractors on a given project. The requesting party must identify the specific contractor by name and state a given time-period for the CPRs.

Occasionally, requesting parties will ask the public agency to continue to provide updates on CPRs as the project progresses. At present, there is no obligation to continue to provide updates or send additional CPRs. If additional CPRs are wanted, there needs to be an additional request.

Protected Information

If a public agency is already collecting CPRs, then it needs only to redact the workers’ protected information. “Protected information” depends on who is asking for the CPR. If a joint labor management committee is asking for the CPR, then only the workers’ social security numbers need to be redacted. If the request is from someone other than a joint labor management committee, then each employee’s name, address, and social security number must be redacted. It is critical that the public agency does not disclose a worker’s social security number to any third party. Special rules can apply in limited circumstances, such as a Taft-Hartley Trust request.

Requesting CPRs from the Contractor

If a public agency does not already have CPRs, it must request those documents directly from the contractor. If the CPRs are for a subcontractor, then the agency must send the request to the prime contractor with a reminder that the subcontractor has 10 days to deliver the full CPRs to the public agency. For the purpose of responding to a request for CPRs from anyone other than the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), the only thing required to be provided to the requesting party is a copy of the actual CPRs; there is no requirement to provide apprenticeship forms (DAS-140 or DAS-142), proof that training contributions were made, or copies of fringe benefit statements. Sometimes fringe benefit information (PW 26) is accessible and provided, but it is not necessarily required.

Under past practices, some agencies would forward a public request for documents to the contractor and tell the contractor to submit the information directly to the requesting party. Starting January 1, 2026, under AB 538, public agencies are instead required to collect CPRs from the contractor, redact employee protected information and then respond directly to the requesting party.

10-Day Deadline for Contractors to Provide Requested CPRs

If a contractor does not respond within 10 days to a request for CPRs, then the public agency has an obligation to report the situation to DIR so the Department can open an investigation and fine the contractor.

Example:

1. A public agency receives a request.
2. The public agency must forward the request to the prime contractor.
3. Concurrently, the public agency has an obligation to communicate with the requesting party that the public agency has requested CPRs from the contractor and will respond to the request once it has received the CPRs and redacted protected information as per California Labor Code Section 1776.
4. The prime contractor forwards the request from the public agency to their subcontractor.
5. The subcontractor then has 10 days to provide the documents to the public agency.
6. Once the CPRs are delivered to the public agency, it is then obligated to redact appropriate information and fulfill the request.
7. If the contractor does not respond within 10 days, then the public agency has an obligation to report the situation to DIR.

Best Practices for Compliance

Public agencies should be aware that there are many opportunities in this process to run afoul of AB 538 and other prevailing wage laws if the public agency is not well-organized. 

A public agency has an affirmative obligation to report a contractor who does not respond in a timely manner. It is recommended that staff within a public agency be designated as the prevailing wage information officer(s) whose job will include overseeing its process for documentation gathering, redacting, and delivering.

Best practices dictate the prevailing wage information officer(s) follow-up with the prime contractor if document requests have not been received within 10 days to see if there is a legitimate reason why the CPRs have not been provided.

This article was contributed by Deborah Wilder, President of Contractor Compliance and Monitoring Inc., a CSDA Business Affiliate. CSDA members can contact Deborah and her team through the CSDA Buyer’s Guide at csda.net.

This communication is provided for general information only and is not offered or intended as legal advice. Readers should seek the advice of an attorney when confronted with legal issues and attorneys should perform an independent evaluation of the issues raised in these communications.

Take a look back at previous parts of the 2026 New Laws Series in CSDA eNews for more in-depth overviews of new laws affecting special districts:

Missed Part 2? Read it now: Additional CEQA Exemptions and Reforms

Missed Part 1? Read it now: CA Supreme Court Denies Elected Officials Right to Sue as “Employees” Under Whistleblower Statute