Search wage determinations

Search federal wage determinations: the legally binding minimum wage and fringe schedules a federal contract is bound to, published by the Department of Labor through SAM.gov.

There are three kinds, from three statutes, and they are queried together here with a type filter:

DBA, Davis-Bacon Act construction rates, by county and construction type (Building, Heavy, Highway, Residential). 68,737 records.
SCA, Service Contract Act service-worker rates. 2,666 records.
CBA, collective bargaining agreements that carry over to a successor contract under section 4(c) of the SCA. 18,630 records, each carrying a cba block with its contractor, union, and term.

Most of what you get back is not current

SAM keeps every superseded revision of a determination, not just the one in force. About 6% of Davis-Bacon records are currently active (4,235 of 68,737); the rest are history. Pass active_only=true for the determinations that actually govern a bid today. Without it, the default result is a revision archive sorted newest-modified first.

Quick start

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://govconapi.com/api/v1/wage-determinations/search?type=DBA&state=CA&active_only=true&limit=1"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "wd_id": "CA20260022",
      "wd_number": "CA20260022",
      "wd_type": "DBA",
      "revision_number": 5,
      "is_active": true,
      "publish_date": "2026-08-06",
      "modified_date": "2026-08-06",
      "construction_types": ["Building", "Heavy", "Highway"],
      "locations": [{ "state": "CA", "county": "Los Angeles" }],
      "total_locations": 1,
      "locations_truncated": false
    }
  ],
  "pagination": { "limit": 1, "offset": 0, "total": 28, "total_is_estimate": false, "has_next": true },
  "filters_applied": { "type": "DBA", "state": "CA", "active_only": true, "sort_by": "modified_date", "sort_order": "desc" },
  "window": { "plan_window_days": null, "earliest_searchable": null, "clamped": false, "reason": "Wage determinations are compliance reference data, not time-series records, so they are not date-windowed: the full set is searchable on every plan. Use date_from / date_to to filter by the date a determination was last modified." },
  "_sources": ["sam_wage_determinations"]
}

To answer the compliance question directly ("what applies in this county"), use /wage-determinations/by-location, which resolves county-specific and statewide coverage in one call.

`locations[]` is scoped to your filter, not the full nationwide list

When you pass state (and optionally county), the embedded locations[] array is narrowed to jurisdictions matching that filter, not every jurisdiction the determination applies to nationwide. total_locations is the determination's full nationwide location count; locations_truncated is true whenever the embedded array is narrower than that:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://govconapi.com/api/v1/wage-determinations/search?wd_number=1996-0223&state=VA&active_only=true"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "wd_id": "1996-0223",
      "wd_number": "1996-0223",
      "wd_type": "SCA",
      "revision_number": 70,
      "is_active": true,
      "locations": [
        { "state": "VA", "county": "Accomack" },
        { "state": "VA", "county": "Albemarle" }
      ],
      "total_locations": 3180,
      "locations_truncated": true
    }
  ]
}

This determination applies in 3,180 jurisdictions nationwide (total_locations); the embedded array here shows only its 96 Virginia counties, hence locations_truncated: true. To get the FULL, unscoped location list for one determination, use the single-record lookup , /wage-determinations/{wd_id} never filters locations[].

Parameters

Param	Type	Description
`type`	string	`DBA`, `SCA`, or `CBA`. Invalid values return a 400 with the valid list.
`state`	string	2-letter US state or territory code. Joins through the location index.
`county`	string	County-name substring (for example `Cook`). Wildcards are escaped and matched literally.
`wd_number`	string	WD-number substring (for example `AK2026`, `1994-2371`, `CBA-2025`).
`active_only`	bool	Only currently-effective determinations. Default `false`.
`construction_type`	string	DBA only: `Building`, `Heavy`, `Highway`, or `Residential`.
`date_from` / `date_to`	date	ISO `YYYY-MM-DD`, bounding the determination's modified date.
`sort_by`	string	`modified_date` (default), `publish_date`, `wd_number`, or `revision_number`.
`sort_order`	string	`asc` or `desc` (default).
`limit` / `offset`	int	Page size (default 100; maximum 100 on the free trial, 1,000 on paid plans) and offset.
`fields`	string	Comma-list of response fields to return.

modified_since is accepted as a hidden alias for date_from; sending both is a 400.

Response fields

Field	Meaning
`wd_id`	Internal SAM identifier (the stable key for a single-record lookup).
`wd_number`	Human-readable WD number. DBA encodes state and year (`CA2026...`), SCA a year-sequence (`2015-4567`), CBA `CBA-YYYY-N`.
`wd_type`	`DBA`, `SCA`, or `CBA`.
`revision_number`	The determination's revision.
`is_active`	Whether this revision is currently in force.
`publish_date` / `modified_date`	Source dates. Roughly 27% of DBA records carry no modified date from the source, so a `date_from` filter will not return them.
`construction_types`	DBA only: the construction categories the rate schedule covers.
`locations`	The state and county jurisdictions the determination applies to. A statewide determination has a county of `null`. Scoped to your `state`/`county` filter, not the full nationwide list , see below.
`total_locations`	The determination's real, full nationwide location count (unaffected by your filter).
`locations_truncated`	`true` when `locations[]` above is narrower than `total_locations` because of your `state`/`county` filter.
`cba`	CBA only: contractor, union, covered services, and effective dates. Present on CBA rows, absent on DBA and SCA. Present on roughly 87% of CBAs overall; the rest return empty from the source.

Errors

Status	When
`400`	Invalid `type`, `sort_by`, or `sort_order`; malformed `date_from` / `date_to`; unknown query parameter; both `date_from` and `modified_since` sent.
`401`	Missing or invalid API key.
`422`	`limit` below 1 or negative `offset`. A `limit` above your plan maximum is a `402`.

Examples

Track Davis-Bacon revisions issued in a state since a date:

GET /api/v1/wage-determinations/search?type=DBA&state=IL&date_from=2026-04-01&active_only=true

Find active CBAs in a jurisdiction, with contractor and union:

GET /api/v1/wage-determinations/search?type=CBA&state=DC&active_only=true

Look a determination up by number:

GET /api/v1/wage-determinations/search?wd_number=AK2026