See the entire wage determination with API access
The free lookup on this site gives you the rate: base, fringe and total, by county, construction type and funding source. The API returns the determination record those numbers come from — scheduled future increases, apprentice scales, shift and holiday premiums, ZIP coverage, union status and the identifiers certified payroll has to cite. Same data, same bi-weekly refresh, in a form a payroll or estimating system can consume.
The same wage record, both ways
Below is one real determination — a Building Carpenter in Albany County, New York, under the New York State schedule. On the left is what the free page for that classification publishes. On the right is what a single API call returns for it.
Free lookup
No key required10 fields — enough to check a rate, which is what most visitors need.
{
"name": "Carpenter - Building - Carpenter",
"wage_rate": 36.38,
"fringe_rate": 24.84,
"total_prevailing_wage": "61.22",
"county": "Albany",
"state": "New York",
"construction_type": "Building",
"source_type": "state",
"decision_date": "06/01/2026",
"url": "https://dol.ny.gov/article-8-prevailing-wage-rates-07012025-06302026"
}API response
Paid / evaluation key The same record with 11 additional fields, including the nested details.additional_info block the source document carries.
{
"total": 10,
"limit": 1,
"offset": 0,
"count": 1,
"results": [
{
"name": "Carpenter - Building - Carpenter",
"wage_rate": 36.38,
"fringe_rate": 24.84,
"total_prevailing_wage": "61.22",
"county": "Albany",
"state": "New york",
"url": "https://dol.ny.gov/article-8-prevailing-wage-rates-07012025-06302026",
"scraped_at": "2026-07-30T16:30:19Z",
"decision_date": "06/01/2026",
"document_date": "07/01/2025",
"document_date_type": "effective_date",
"effective_date": "07/01/2025",
"construction_type": "Building",
"rate_identifier": "2-291B-ALB",
"union_status": "union",
"source_type": "state",
"taxonomy_slug": "new-york-albany-county-state-building-carpenter-building-carpenter-union",
"zip_codes": "12007,12009,12023,12041,12045,12046,12047,12054,12059,12067,12077,12084,
12085,12110,12120,12143,12147,12158,12159,12161,12183,12186,12189,12193,
12202,12203,12204,12205,12206,12207,12208,12209,12210,12211,12222,12226,
12303,12460,12469",
"wage_version": "fy2026",
"details": {
"sub_fringes": null,
"sub_rates": null,
"additional_info": {
"article": "article8",
"district": "2",
"schedule_county_section": "Albany",
"entire_counties": "Albany, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga,
Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren, Washington",
"partial_counties": "",
"rate_identifier": "2-291B-Alb",
"schedule_period": { "start": "07/01/2025", "end": "06/30/2026" },
"published": "06/01/2026",
"wage_columns_marked_additional": 2,
"future_rates": [
{ "effective_date": "01/01/2026", "rate": 38.38 },
{ "effective_date": "07/01/2026", "rate": 5.0, "additional_increment": true },
{ "effective_date": "07/01/2027", "rate": 4.0, "additional_increment": true }
],
"supplement_label": "Journeyworker",
"supplement_match": "single",
"future_supplements": [
{ "effective_date": "01/01/2026", "rate": 24.84 }
],
"wage_notes": [
"NOTE ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS PAID FOR THE FOLLOWING WORK LISTED BELOW (per hour worked):",
"- Pile Drivers/Dock Builders shall receive $0.25 per hour over the journeyworker's",
" rate of pay when performing piledriving/dock building work.",
"- Certified welders shall receive $3.00 per hour over the journeyworker's rate of pay",
" when the employee is required to be certified and performs AWS, DOT or ABS",
" specified welding work",
"- When an employee performs work within a contaminated area on a State and/or",
" Federally designated hazardous waste site ... the employee shall receive his",
" regular hourly rate plus $1.50 per hour.",
"- Depth pay for Divers based upon deepest depth on the day of the dive (per diem):",
" 0' to 80' no additional fee / 81' to 100' additional $.50 per foot / ..."
],
"shift_work": [
"On Agency/Owner mandated shift work, the following rates will be applicable:",
"1st Shift - Regular Rate",
"2nd Shift - Premium of 10% of base wage per hour",
"3rd Shift - Premium of 15% of base wage per hour",
"Shift work shall be defined as implementing at least two (2) shifts in a",
"twenty-four (24) consecutive hour period. Shift work must be for a minimum of",
"three (3) consecutive days."
],
"overtime": [ "See (B, E, E2, Q) on OVERTIME PAGE" ],
"holiday": [
"Paid: See (1) on HOLIDAY PAGE",
"Overtime: See (5, 6) on HOLIDAY PAGE",
"Note: Any holiday which occurs on Sunday shall be observed the following Monday.",
"If Christmas falls on a Saturday, it shall be observed on the prior Friday."
],
"registered_apprentices": [
"Wages per hour (1300 hour terms at the following percentage of Journeyworker's",
"base wage):",
"1st 2nd 3rd 4th",
"65% 70% 75% 80%",
"Supplemental Benefits per hour:",
"$ 12.66 $ 12.66 $ 15.26 $ 15.26",
"- Pile Driving/Dock Builder apprentices shall receive an additional $0.25 per hour",
" worked when performing piledriving/dock building work.",
"- Certified Welders shall receive $3.00 per hour over the apprentices rate of pay",
" when the apprentice is required to be certified ..."
]
}
}
}
]
}GET /api/v1/wages?state=New York&county=Albany&classification=Carpenter
What the additional fields are for
These are not extra decoration on the same number. Each one answers a question the headline rate cannot, and each is a question that costs money to get wrong.
| Field | What it holds | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
future_rates | Increases already published for this classification, each with its effective date. | A multi-year job is bid at the rate that will apply when the work happens, not the rate today. This is the difference between a priced escalation and an unfunded one. |
future_supplements | Scheduled changes to the fringe/supplement amount. | Fringe moves on its own schedule, separately from the base rate. Escalating one and not the other understates the total obligation. |
registered_apprentices | Apprentice wage scale by period, as a percentage of the journeyworker base, plus the supplement at each step. | Apprentices are paid a fraction of the journeyworker rate, and paying them the journeyworker rate — or the wrong step — is one of the most common certified payroll findings. |
shift_work | Shift definitions and the premium attached to each. | Second and third shift carry percentage premiums over base. Night work priced at the day rate is underpaid on every hour. |
overtime, holiday | The overtime and holiday codes the determination applies, and the observance rules. | Fringe is owed at straight time on overtime hours, and holiday observance shifts. These rules decide what the hour actually costs. |
wage_notes | Every footnote on the determination: certification premiums, hazardous-area pay, depth and penetration pay, task-specific additions. | These add dollars per hour to specific work. They are the clauses a reader skips and an auditor does not. |
zip_codes | Every ZIP code the determination covers. | Lets a system resolve a job-site address to the right determination automatically, instead of a human matching county names by hand. |
entire_counties, partial_counties | The full geographic scope of the schedule, including counties covered only in part. | One schedule often covers a group of counties. Partial coverage is where jurisdiction disputes start. |
union_status, rate_identifier, wage_version | Union vs non-union, the source document’s own rate ID, and the determination version. | These are the fields certified payroll reports and audits cite to prove which determination a rate came from. |
sub_rates, sub_fringes | Sub-classification breakdowns where the source publishes them. | Trades split into sub-rates by task or equipment. The correct rate is the sub-classification, not the parent. |
scraped_at, document_date_type | When WageFinder last read the source, and which date type the source published. | Lets a system tell a stale record from a current one, and know whether a date is an effective date or a decision date. |
Free lookup vs API access
| Capability | Free lookup | API access |
|---|---|---|
| Search and read every published rate base, fringe and total by county, trade, construction type and funding source | ✓ | ✓ |
| Federal, state and city determinations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Weekly refresh from official sources | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full determination record future rates, apprentice scales, shift/overtime/holiday rules, notes | — | ✓ |
| ZIP-code and multi-county coverage data | — | ✓ |
| Compliance identifiers union status, rate identifier, wage version | — | ✓ |
| Programmatic access JSON over HTTPS, filterable and paginated | Explorer only | ✓ |
| Bulk and historical extracts | — | ✓ |
| Rate limits | Per-visitor, browser only | Per contract |
| Commercial use in your own product | — | ✓ |
The free lookup is not a trial and does not expire. Every county and trade page on this site stays free to read, and the API Explorer lets you try queries against it in the browser without a key.
Questions about API access
Is the free lookup going away?
No. Every county, trade and wage page on this site stays free to read, with no key and no account. The API is for systems that need the full record and programmatic access, not a paywall on what is already published here.
Where does the data come from?
Official government sources — federal Davis-Bacon determinations and the state and city schedules that publish their own. WageFinder re-reads them weekly and does not alter the rates. Every record carries the source URL, and for compliance the government document remains authoritative.
What does an evaluation key include?
The same fields as production, so an integration can be built and tested against real responses before any commitment. Coverage and rate limits are set with the key.
Can I try the API without a key?
Yes. The API Explorer on this site runs live queries in the browser against the public tier, so you can see the request and response shapes before contacting anyone.
Evaluation keys are issued for integration testing, with the same fields as production.
Get an Evaluation API Key