What a Service Contract Act job has to pay you

Four things, not one

A wage determination lists, for each occupation in a locality, a minimum hourly wage. On top of that it sets fringe benefits that apply to every covered worker:

• Health & welfare. A dollar amount per hour, usually several dollars, owed on top of your wage for each hour paid, up to 40 hours a week. Your employer may provide it as benefits such as health insurance, pay it to you in cash, or combine the two. What it may not do is treat it as already included in your wage.
• Vacation. Usually paid time off that grows with length of service — for example two weeks after one year. Service often counts across contractors: time you worked for a previous contractor on the same contract at the same facility can count toward it. The exact wording is on the determination.
• Paid holidays. A set number of named holidays, commonly ten or eleven.
• Paid sick leave. On many contracts, Executive Order 13706 requires paid sick leave that accrues at one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 56 hours a year.

Overtime is separate: it comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act, not from the determination.

How to find the numbers for your job

Wage determinations are public. Your employer is required to post a notice of your rights under the Act where you work and to make the determination for the contract available to you. You can also look one up yourself: pick your state and county in the lookup on this site to see the rate for each occupation, along with the health & welfare rate, vacation schedule and number of holidays.

One caution: a county can be covered by more than one determination, and the one that applies is the one written into the specific contract. The posted notice at your workplace is the authority for your job.

When the contract changes hands

Federal service contracts are re-bid every few years, and a new company may take over the work. What the new company must pay depends on one thing:

• If the old contractor had a union contract (a collective bargaining agreement), the new contractor must generally pay at least the wages and fringe benefits in that agreement, including increases it scheduled.
• If there was no union contract, the new contractor must pay at least the wage determination rates. Anything you were paid above those rates is not protected by the Act.

That is why pay above the determination is the part most exposed when a contract is re-competed, and why the determination rate is worth knowing even if you earn more than it today.

If you think you are being underpaid

This site cannot look at your situation or tell you whether you are owed money. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division can, for free and confidentially. Call 1-866-487-9243 or contact them through dol.gov/agencies/whd. It helps to have your pay stubs, your job title, and the name of the contract or federal facility where you work.